Before Ex-Minister Ashu’s arrest: Cong team ‘requested’ VB to detain all of them, said ‘fed up with malicious daily dossiers’

The team, which had planned to hand over a memorandum to the VB office in Mohali had to leave from outside after handing over the note to the police deployed there as the contingent was not allowed in.

State Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, who led the party delegation, said the VB chief director declined to meet them. The Punjab Congress had planned to present its leadership before the VB saying it could detain any of them.

In the memorandum addressed to the state VB director, the Congress leaders said, “Every day there are reports circulated by the department levelling baseless charges against former ministers accusing them of corruption to the tune of thousands of crores of rupees without the amount being accounted for or the allegations corroborated with any facts. We are fed up with these malicious daily dossiers of your department maligning our leaders. All of us have come here to present ourselves before the department so that you can detain anyone of us, or all of us, whomsoever you have any complaints against, rather about whom you have the directions from the powers that be, to fix.”

The Congress leaders further stated that “while the VB at the behest of its political masters had started the battle, it (the Congress party) will finish it by all legal and democratic means”.

The memorandum stated, “The Punjab Congress wants to make it categorically clear to everyone concerned, the political leadership and the executive alike, that the party will not take it lying down anymore. We will use all legal and legitimate channels to defend ourselves and also ensure that those involved and indulging in witch-hunt and intimidation of our workers and leaders are held to account at the right time.”

Accusing the government and the VB of “inflating and exaggerating the figures, which in any case are baseless, false and fabricated”, the memorandum said, “The way figures are magnified, dramatised and sensationalised, it is clear that there is deliberate design behind it to create a false perception among the public against the party leaders. The vigilance is being used by the government to cover up its failures in fulfilling the promises it had made as also to divert the attention from the corruption scandals that are tumbling out of their cupboard in Delhi.”

Expressing surprise over the way the VB office had been fortified, the Congress leaders said, “We have not come here to stage any protest or dharna.”

Bajwa upset over ‘not opening’ party office gate

Earlier leader of opposition and Congress MLA from Qadian Partap Singh Bajwa, along with former Speaker of Punjab Vidhan Sabha Rana K P Singh and former deputy chief minister O P Soni, left in a huff from the Punjab Congress Bhawan after expressing his anguish over “not opening” the gate to let their vehicle inside the premises.

The drama unfolded when patrty leaders had gathered at Congress Bhawan before proceeding to the VB headquarters in Mohali. Bajwa, Rana K P Singh and Soni did not accompany the party leadership to the VB office.

While Warring talking to reporters said the accountability of guard on duty at the gate would be fixed and the matter should not be blown out of proportion, a party leader said there was a technical glitch that jammed the “motorised gate” when Bajwa arrived.

Another Congress leader said Bajwa got annoyed after one of the staff accompanying him told him that this was not the first time that technical glitch was blamed for not opening the gate.

The leader said that there was ample space inside the Congress Bhawan to park the vehicle. He added that Bajwa walked till the inside entrance of the Congress Bhawan and expressed his displeasure saying that it was the party office and its gate should remain open for party men.

Bajwa was not available for comments.