CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday rejected reports of the SIT giving a clean chit to the Akali leadership in the Behbal Kalan firing case, saying a single challan submitted so far in the court was being erroneously interpreted to mean that the Akalis were innocent in the matter.
After accompanying Congress candidate Sher Singh Ghubaya to file his nomination papers from Ferozepur, where he is pitted against SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, Amarinder said the media was twisting information to mean something that had nowhere been concluded by the SIT.
The SIT had, in fact, made it clear that its investigations were still in progress and it would be filing more challans to supplement the one it had filed so far against a single police officer, he pointed out. “How can a partial investigation and a single challan be taken to mean a clean chit to the Akalis,” he asked.
Amarinder reiterated that once the probe into the case was completed, anyone found guilty of involvement, howsoever high and mighty he might have been, would be punished as per law. He, however, clarified once again that he would not indulge in political vendetta to nail the Badals or anyone else in this or any other case.
Asked about the bribery allegations against Congress candidate Amrinder Singh Raja Warring from Bathinda, Amarinder said the SDM had already carried out an inquiry into the charges and found them to be totally wrong. The opposition had no election plank to fight the polls and was indulging in falsehoods and unfounded allegations to mislead the voters, he added.
Earlier, in Rupnagar, where he accompanied Manish Tewari in filing his nomination papers for the Congress, the Chief Minister, taking strong exception to the remarks of his Haryana counterpart on Rahul Gandhi in the context of the Punjab electoral scene, asked Manohar Lal Khattar to stop commenting on Punjab and the Congress leadership and talk instead about his own state and his own leader, Narendra Modi.
Terming as ridiculous Khattar’s remark that Congress leaders in Punjab were not taking Rahul’s name during electioneering, Amarinder said the Haryana chief minister was neither clued into what was happening in Punjab or the Congress here, nor did he have any locus standi to speak about matters relating to the state.
“Why does he not talk of Modi and the BJP in Haryana?” asked Amarinder.