AAP MLA Harvinder Singh Phoolka to resign from Punjab assembly today

He said the resigination is to mark his protest against the failure of Congress government in booking former CM Parkash Singh Badal and former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini for sacrilege cases.

punjab Updated: Oct 12, 2018 09:40 IST
Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Dakha MLA Harvinder Singh Phoolka (HT Photo)

Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Dakha MLA Harvinder Singh Phoolka has announced that he will resign from membership of the Punjab assembly on October 12. He said that the resignation is to mark his protest against the failure of Congress government in booking former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and former director general of police (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini for sacrilege cases.

Phoolka said that there is no stay from court on action against the former CM and the DGP on the basis of the findings of Ranjit Singh Commission report. “But the Captain Amarinder Singh-led government has failed to initiate action against the two. I will send a one-line resignation to the speaker and write a separate letter stating my reasons for quitting the state assembly,” the former leader of opposition said, who was in Delhi.

He announced the decision after the DGP’s petition asking the state government to hand over criminal proceedings, if any initiated against him, to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), came up in the Punjab and Haryana high court.

Phoolka, who is also a Supreme Court lawyer, had first talked about his resignation on September 1, giving a 15-day deadline to the government to act against the duo. However, he had deferred his resignation as the HC had stayed the proceedings initiated by the state government against three other former cops in the matter. A one-man commission was set up by the Congress government to investigate the sacrilege incidents and firing incidents of Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan in 2015.

First Published: Oct 12, 2018 09:38 IST