Booked on charges of obstructing government officials from discharging their duties after his spat with one of them last week, independent legislator Simarjeet Singh Bains on Tuesday accused Chief Minister of Amarinder Singh of unleashing a "political vendetta" against him.
Lok Insaaf party (LIP) chief Bains said Chief Minister Singh is behind the criminal case lodged against him because he had moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging the ACB's closure report in the Ludhiana City Centre scandal, allegedly involving Singh and his family members.
Bains was booked on Sunday by Punjab police for allegedly berating Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner Vipul Ujjwal publicly at the civil hospital on the issue of identity of a Batala blast victim's body, with a video of the incident having gone viral.
In the video, legislator Bains was seen shouting at DC Ujwal even as the officer tried to clear some confusion over the identity of a blast victim's body.
"The case against me has been filed not on the complaint of the DC or SDM, but at the behest of Amarinder Singh as I have challenged the Vigilance Bureau's closure report in the Ludhiana City Centre scandal in the high court," said Atam Nagar MLA Bains.
"It's a political vendetta. They want to suppress my voice. I am not afraid of the CM. It's a false case. I am not afraid of going to jail. Let them frame me in 100 cases, but I will take the City Centre Scandal to its logical conclusion. I will move even the Supreme Court," he said.
Seeking to clarify his position, Bains said he never used abusive language against the Gurdaspur deputy commissioner. Ujjwal, instead asked me why I entered his room."
"Who sent you in, go out," Bains quoted the DC as telling him when, he said, he went to the civil hospital along with a man who was looking for the body of his brother killed in Batala's firecracker factory, in which 24 persons lost their lives.
Police have booked Ludhiana MLA and his unidentified twenty-odd associates on charges of obstructing a public servant from discharging his duty (S 186), assaulting or using criminal force against him (S 353), committing trespass (S 451) and making criminal intimidation (S 506) of the Indian Penal Code.
"It's not your father's office, it's a public office and you are asking the public to get out," Bains was heard yelling at Ujjwal in Punjabi in the video, even as the officer was seen trying to calm the infuriated MLA in the video.
With the furious MLA refusing to see reasons, a humiliated deputy commissioner was heard merely quipping "I'm not going to talk to you" and seen leaving the place.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued notice to the Punjab government and sought its stand on Bains' petition seeking permission to intervene in the Ludhiana City Centre case.
The petition was filed nearly 11 months after a court in Ludhiana had rejected Bains' plea to be party in the case.
The vigilance bureau, on August 19, 2017, had filed a closure report before the Ludhiana court claiming that there was no scam at all and that no proof was found against Amarinder Singh, his son Raninder Singh and others following 're-investigation'.
Bains had filed an application in the court challenging the closure report filed by the Vigilance Bureau in the case in 2017.
He had also sought permission to join the proceedings in the case claiming that since it is a corruption case, he has the right to challenge the closure report.
The Vigilance Bureau earlier had filed the case against Amarinder and others in the allegedRs 1,100-crore Ludhiana City Centre scam.
Touted as one of the biggest projects in the state, the Ludhiana City Centre plan was rolled out in 2006.
To be spread over 25 acres of land, the project was proposed to have shopping malls, 12 multiplexes, residential apartments, helipad and parking slot. The project site on Pakhowal Road of Ludhiana, however, is currently in ruins.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)