AAP leader Raghav Chadha during a press conference. (File) Punjab co-incharge of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Delhi MLA Raghav Chadha on Sunday accused Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi of having directed the Punjab Police not to arrest Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia in a drugs case.
Addressing a press conference here, Chadha said that a senior Punjab Police officer had confided to the party that directions had been issued by the CM not to take any action against Majithia after registering an FIR against him.
“It is inexplicable that the accused has not been arrested even after the rejection of his anticipatory bail. The AAP had revealed even before the FIR was registered that the real intention was just to fool the people of Punjab and not arrest Bikram Singh Majithia,” said Chadha.
The AAP leader went on to say that there had been a secret deal between Charanjit Singh Channi and SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal not to arrest Majithia. “Channi is a compromised CM. He has entered into a deal with the Badals. Here the prime accused is seen in photographs going around paying obeisance at Harmandir Sahib which is teeming with security and CCTV cameras. How is this possible? There are also reports that he is openly going around in his constituency,” said Chadha.
In his meet the press programme in Chandigarh on Saturday, Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi had said that all efforts were being made to arrest Bikram Majithia as per provisions of law. He had added that no personal vendetta was being played out and that AAP was making false accusations of a weak FIR being registered against Majithia. “Had the FIR been weak, would his bail application have been rejected by the court,” he questioned.
Commenting on the 100-day report card issued by the CM on Saturday, Raghav Chadha challenged Channi to name 100 places in Punjab where the sale of drugs has stopped in the last 100 days.
Answering a question he defended the apology tendered to Bikram Majithia by AAP National convenor Arvind Kejriwal. “Tendering an apology in a defamation case does not mean that the petitioner has been given a clean chit in the drugs case. The scope of the apology is limited because no one wants to be going around the country facing 40 defamation cases,” he said.
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