Former Punjab CM Channi Grilled for Seven Hours by Vigilance Bureau Over Disproportionate Assets Case

The Vigilance Bureau reportedly questioned Former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi over a disproportionate assets case for seven hours. He was asked about the probe before he entered for questioning, and he said that it was “totally political” and that the AAP government can do what it wants.

The Vigilance Bureau is looking into cases of disproportionate assets and last month, the bureau had issued a lookout circular against former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi. He was originally asked to appear for questioning on April 12, but he asked for his date to be rescheduled and it was shifted to April 20. However, the Vigilance Bureau later advanced it to Friday.

Before entering the bureau’s office, Channi spoke to the media and said, “The probe is totally political. Let them do what they want.” Addressing a press conference before he reached the bureau’s office, Channi attacked the state’s AAP government and said he “may be tortured, arrested or even killed”, but he is prepared for it. He also raised an issue about his date being advanced and slammed AAP government, claiming that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s regime was indulging in “vendetta politics”.

According to reports, Channi was grilled by the bureau for seven hours. Upon his release, he slammed the AAP government again and said that “this government is treating worse than even the Mughals. They want to use every way to humiliate and defame. In democracy, this is not the way that without any basis they try to build up a case. I stand by what I said earlier in the morning at my press conference, they may do whatever they have to.”

Channi says that the AAP government was rattled by the questions he raised on Dalits, Akal Takht Jathedar, and about justice in sacrilege cases and farmers’ issues.

Vineet Washington