Dissatisfied with the Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh’ decision to set up a judicial commission to probe into allegations of impropriety against his Cabinet Minister, the opposition parties on Monday called for Rana Gurjit Singh’s dismissal for “free and fair enquiry”.
Both the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has expressed their discontentment with the setting up of a Commission under the retired judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice NS Narang.
SAD has described the move as “too little, too late”, while the AAP has termed it “meaningless” unless Rana Gurjit was dismissed from the Cabinet.
Demanding the immediate sack of the Minister to ensure a free and fair probe into the entire matter, SAD demanded handing over the matter to the enforcement directorate (ED) to detect “benaami transactions”.
“The judicial inquiry would not serve the required purpose…This is a clear case of corruption, benaami deals and possibly even hawala transactions. It would have been in the fitness of things if the Chief Minister had handed over the case to the Enforcement Directorate besides involving the Income Tax authorities,” said the former Minister and SAD spokesman Daljeet Singh Cheema.
Cheema said that these agencies would have been able to investigate and “bust the money trail which allowed paupers with few pennies in their name to acquire sand mines”.
“Obviously all this was done at the behest of Rana Gurjit. If the minister is not sacked, it is likely he will be able to influence key witnesses and a fair investigation of the case would not be possible,” he added.
Cheema said that instead of sacking the Minister immediately, the Government has gone in for a commission which has sent out a message that the Government wants to let Rana Gurjit off the hook.
“SAD would take all measures to ensure just legal punishment to Rana Gurjit for abusing the trust of the people and subverting the entire sand mining process in the State,” he said while also demanding action against the officials who had facilitated Rana Gurjit's benaami transactions.
Meanwhile, AAP MlA from Bholath Sukhpal Singh Khira maintained that the “belated judicial inquiry” appears to be a tailor made exercise to absolve the accused Minister Rana Gurjit.
He announced that AAP would go ahead with its proposed sit-in on Tuesday outside the Chief Minister’s residence at 11 am. The dharna would be performed by the MlAs of AAP and its ally lok Insaaf Party.
“We are of the firm opinion that if Rana Gurjeet Singh continues to be a member of cabinet, the said inquiry can never be free, fair and impartial. The Minister must resign forthwith or he should be dismissed from the cabinet pending inquiry or else the entire exercise would appear to be meaningless and a farce,” he said.
At the same time, AAP urged Justice JS Narang, Rana Gurjit Singh, Capt JS Randhawa and other accused to clarify if they have ever remained in a lawyer-client relationship. “If Rana Gurjit has remained a client of Justice JS Narang in his capacity as a counsel or vice versa, it would raise many doubts of this inquiry being fair and impartial,” said Khaira.
“We are apprehensive that the inquiry has been set up after giving ample time to the accused Minister to do a cleanup job of his and his company’s accounts before any legal scrutiny,” said Khaira.
Earlier in the day, Khaira had shot off a communique to the Chief Minister seeking his immediate intervention in the matter.
Khaira had asked for Rana Gurjit’s dismissal from the Cabinet without any further delay and an impartial time bound inquiry into the mining scam, by an agency of your choice.