City Centre scam: Khaira questions clean chit to Amarinder

Nikhil Bhardwaj
Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, August 20

Punjab’s Leader of Opposition Sukhpal Khaira has appealed to the Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court to take a suo moto notice of the clean chit given to Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh in the City Centre scam case.     

Also read: Clean chit to Capt in City Centre scam

He alleged that by giving a clean chit to the CM in the case indicated that the Badals and Capt were "playing a friendly match".

Lok Insaaf Party chief Simarjit Singh Bains said he would approach the high court to prevent court from accepting the closure of report in the case.                       

On a recent attack on three AAP workers in Ludhiana, Bains said if justice was not delivered in the case, all 22 MLAs of AAP will protest outside the office of the DGP, Punjab.

He said CP, Ludhiana, RN Dhoke, has assured him that culprits, in which key accused was Congress leader Hridypal Singh, would be arrested within 24 hours. 

Khaira alleged when Badals were in power they deliberately did not let the vigilance to file a chargesheet in court as they wanted to keep people in dark.

He alleged Badals had already given a clean chit to Capt Amarinder and they continued the drama of vigilance probe just to mislead the people of Punjab.

Khaira said in 2007 a case was registered and in the same year a 10,000-page chargesheet was filed in the court. 

He said the City Centre was not only the case where Badals acted “softly” against the Capt, but there were two more scams, including the Amritsar Improvement Trust case and a case involving an export-oriented firm, which too were not pursued seriously.

Khaira said in the three cases, the SAD concluded probe before leaving power under a secret agreement.”

He alleged since Badals have favoured Capt, Capt too would act the same way against them and would not take action in their alleged involvement in “the transport loot, illegal mining and hotel business”.                        

He said: “The arrangement of Badals and Capt would prove costly for Punjab residents.”