Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Punjab Partap Singh Bajwa Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Punjab Partap Singh Bajwa on Sunday said that “arrest of former industry minister & BJP leader Sunder Sham Arora was fine but Bhagwant Mann government should also now arrest his cabinet colleague Fauja Singh Sarari embroiled in a corruption & extortion case”.
Bajwa said, “The arrest of Arora by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau in a corruption case was okay but what about Fauja Singh Sarari whose audio clip has already gone viral in which he was categorically heard fixing a deal to extort money from Punjab officials.”
The Congress MLA from Qadian added, “Moreover Sarari and his OSD Tarsem Lal Kapoor both had already admitted before the media that the voices in the audio clip actually belonged to them. So what is holding back Bhagwant Mann from arresting Sarari and dropping him from the cabinet as he did with former Health Minister Dr Vijay Kumar Singla.” Bajwa said he would “invariably appreciate any effort by the State or the Union government to act tough against corrupt officials or ministers”. He added, “However, I am completely against the biased and partial attitude of the Bhagwant Mann government and over its pick and choose policy. Why are there double standards against the Congress ministers whereas his own ministers go scot free in corruption and extortion cases?”
BJP leader Sunil Jakhar, “It is very unfortunate, but as a matter of principle, it is settled issue that there is no compromise [by BJP] on cases of corruption. But at the same time, when police gets benefit to doubt for doing their job as per law, the same benefit of doubt should be available to politicians also. Not every politician is corrupt.”
Jakhar added, “Yesterday only, one of the councilors in Ludhiana was let off because VB could not find anything against him. He was arrested and taken into police remand. One can also see that people are being picked up to score brownie points in the wake of elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat.”
Meanwhile, former deputy speaker of Punjab Vidhan Sabha Bir Devinder Singh said Arora’s arrest by the VB “has substantially supported my apprehensions in pointing out the involvement of Sunder Sham Arora in mega corruption while bartering away the interests of the State to the land mafia for extraneous reasons; through Punjab Small Industry & Export Corporation) and Punjab Information & Communication Technology Corporation Limited (Punjab Infotech).”
“As a whistle blower against corruption and also as former MLA Kharar, I raised the alarm and blown the lid off the mega land scam involving 32 Acre of Industrial plot, allotted to JCT Electronic Limited in the Industrial Phase VIII at SAS Nagar (Mohali). In this deal the entire department of Industries, Punjab including PSIEC and Punjab Infotech, was involved. These nexus were thoroughly exposed by me while addressing a press conference on 24th of December 2020 at Majestic Hotel, Phase 9, Mohali, seeking CBI probe in the mega land scam. But unfortunately not even a ripple moved because Captain Amarinder Singh was at the helm of the affairs of the State,” Bir Devinder said in a written statement.