CHANDIGARH: Amid the ongoing tension between INDIA alliance partners in Punjab following the arrest of Congress leader Sukhpal Khaira in a drug trafficking case, several Congress leaders were not allowed to meet the incarcerated Khaira, who is in the custody of Fazilka Crime Investigation Agency (CIA).
State Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa and former deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa were stopped when they sought to meet Khaira. Bajwa has termed his arrest a “political vendetta” by the ruling AAP, saying the Congress will fight it legally.
Party workers led by Warring gathered outside the Jalalabad CIA office and demanded meeting the arrested MLA. An additional police force was rushed to the spot to keep calm. The party workers then went to the Fazilka CIA office after they came to know that Khaira was locked up in Fazilka and not in Jalalabad.
Warring, Bajwa and Sukhjinder Randhawa went to the CIA staff office, Fazilka, to meet Khaira, but they were not allowed. “It is a violation of the democratic rights of public representatives. The AAP government has stooped to an all-time low and resorted to petty vendetta politics. The Punjab Congress will not be cowed by such pressure tactics,” said Bajwa.
He said Khaira had recently put AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha in the dock in his X post (formerly known as Twitter) by demanding a clarification from Chadha about how he gifted a 4-carat diamond ring to his newly wedded wife as his income as per the 2020-21 ITR was just Rs 2.44 lakh.