Ex-CM Channi appears before Punjab vigilance in DA case
Chandigarh: Former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi who was quizzed by the vigilance bureau (VB) in connection with a disproportionate assets (DA) case in Mohali on Friday, accused the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government of indulging in political vendetta. Addressing newspersons here prior to go to the VB office, Channi said that he would go to the VB alone and they could arrest or torture him and that they may even kill him one day, but he was prepared for all that.
Stating that the questions raised by him about the justice in sacrilege cases, anti-Dalit actions and compensation to farmers, had rattled the AAP government hence this torture to him. He held that while all the government offices were shut due on Baisakhi holiday (on Friday), yet he had been summoned by VB. Channi, who was state’s first Dalit chief minister last year, also got emotional while alleging that besides being a pious day of Baisakhi, Friday was also the birth anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar.
Channi who was accompanied by state party chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, state party incharge Harish Chaudhary and several other senior leaders, went on to allege that he was also harassed as the AAP did not want him to campaign for Congress candidate in the upcoming Jalandhar Lok Sabha (SC) by-poll.
Pertinently, he was earlier summoned to join the probe on Wednesday for which he had expressed inability subsequent to which the VB summoned him for April 20 but later preponed the date and summoned him on Friday.
Earlier, the VB had issued a lookout circular (LoC) against him on March 7 as the assets if Channi and his family members and aides are currently being investigated in the DA case.
10 former ministers facing VB probes
About 10 former minister of the previous Congress government including Brahm Mohindra, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, Sham Sunder Arora, Gurpreet Singh Kangar, Vijay Inder Singla, Balbir Singh Sidhu, O P Soni and Sangat Singh Gilzian are being facing VB probes for corruption.
Stating that the entire Congress leadership stood in solidarity with former CM Channi against AAP’s vendetta politics, Warring said that the AAP government was deliberately harassing the Dalit leaders to satisfy their egos.