The vigilance clean chit to Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh in ludhiana City Centre scam case has not gone down well with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The party on Sunday appealed to the Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court to take a suo motu notice of the same.
Making the appeal, leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha Sukhpal Singh Khaira also alleged that by giving a clean chit to the Chief Minister in the case indicated that the Badals and Capt Amarinder were “playing a friendly match”.
Khaira accused Captain Amarinder Singh and the Badals (former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, and his son and SAD president Sukhbir Badal) of making mockery of the criminal justice system in Punjab.
“The closure report filed by Vigilance Bureau against Capt Amarinder in Rs 1,150 crore ludhiana City Centre scandal explains the bonhomie between both families,” said Khaira while terming it as “manipulated and procured acquittal”.
Khaira alleged that when Badals were in power, they deliberately did not let the vigilance to file a chargesheet in the court as they wanted to keep people in dark.
He alleged that the Badals had already given a clean chit to Capt Amarinder and they continued the drama of vigilance probe just to mislead the people of Punjab.
Khaira said that in 2007, a case was registered, and in the same year, a 10,000-page chargesheet was filed in the court.
He said that the City Centre was not only the case where Badals acted “softly” against Capt Amarinder, but there were two more scams, including the Amritsar Improvement Trust case and a case involving an export-oriented firm, which too were not pursued seriously.
Khaira said that in the three cases, the SAD concluded probe before leaving power under a secret agreement.
He alleged that since Badals have favoured Capt Amarinder, he too would act the same way against them and would not take action in their alleged involvement in “the transport loot, illegal mining and hotel business”.
The arrangement of Badals and Capt would prove costly for Punjab residents, he said.
“Both families have now established the fact that they file cases against each other just to befool the people of state. In 2003, Captain had filed a case of disproportionate assets against Badals but after forming the government in state, the father-son duo misused the government machinery and prosecution to cancel the case,” pointed Khaira, asking Capt Amarinder why he never challenged that case in the High Court or Supreme Court.
lok Insaaf Party chief and MlA Simarjit Singh Bains said that he would approach the High Court to prevent the Court from accepting the closure of report in the case.