हिंदी
(Arshdeep S Kler says AAP govt had tried to arm twist former Akali leader Upkar Singh Sandhu to become a witness in the case and even submit a false testimony)
Chandigarh, December 29 2023
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today asked chief minister Bhagwant Mann and State Police chief Gaurav Yadav to explain why they were trying to fabricate evidence against senior leader Bikram Singh Majithia by arm twisting former Akali leader Upkar Singh Sandhu to become a witness in the case and even submit a false testimony.
Addressing a press conference here, SAD legal wing president Arshdeep Singh Kler said Upkar Sandhu was first summoned as a witness in the case and when he refused to join the probe into the false drug case registered against Mr Majithia two years back, he was asked to sign a false testimony. “An advocate – Sarabjit Verka visited Mr Upkar Sandhu and asked him to sign a testimony with the aim of implicating Mr Bikram Majithia”.
Mr Arshdeep Kler said following this, the typed statement given to Mr Upkar Sandhu for appending his signatures was submitted to the DGP Gaurav Yadav on December 26. “We have asked the DGP to tell why the government tried to include Mr Sandhu as a witness in the case through a fabricated statement”. He said this act itself had compromised the SIT.
He also pointed out that the government’s intentions in the case were aimed at intimidating Mr Majithia and silencing him. “Mr Majithia was summoned for investigation by the SIT immediately after he came out in support of the chief minister’s daughter who has accused her father of indulging in cruel acts. “Before this the SIT had not called him even once even though it was instituted five months ago”. He said the SIT head – ADGP MS Chhina was also being arm twisted by the AAP government as disciplinary proceedings were pending against him for the breach in the Prime Minister’s security in 2022 and he was being forced to act against Mr Majithia on the eve of his retirement on December 31.
Lauding Mr Sandhu for coming out and exposing the nefarious designs of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, the SAD leader said “now it is clear that the government does not want to conduct any free and fair probe into the case”. He also disclosed that Sandhu had kept aside political differences to expose the AAP government.
Asserting that the “summon politics” which had been introduced by the AAP government to silence its opponents as well as divert attention from the real issues of the State would not bear fruit, Mr Kler said “the SAD will continue to take on the AAP government and expose the misdeeds of the chief minister”. He said earlier also the government had indulged in political vendetta against former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal but it could not deter the SAD from fighting for the welfare of Punjabis.
Mr Kler also highlighted how Mr Majithia was had been made a victim of political vendetta – first at the hands of the erstwhile Congress government which had used a temporary DGP – S Chattopadhyay to register a false case against him and now by the AAP government which was trying to fabricate evidence against him. EOM
