SAD suspends councillor Sidhu

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, June 22

Under pressure, SAD on Friday suspended councillor and former Singh Sabha Gurdwara president Rajinder Singh Sidhu from the party until he is proven innocent in an abetment of suicide case.

While addressing a press conference, SAD leader and former MLA Sarup Chand Singla said the party condemned the audio clip, which went viral, if it was Rajinder Sidhu’s voice.

He said they demanded a thorough probe should be conducted into it and if Sidhu was found guilty, then he should be punished.

Lashing out at Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, Singla said Manpreet was doing the same things in Bathinda as he did in Gidderbaha earlier by wrongly grabbing the control of religious institutes.

Singla added that from the developments that had taken place in the past few days, it was clear that Rajinder Sidhu had been arrested according to a plan to capture the Khalsa Diwan management as Sidhu went to the police station to join the investigation but he was arrested within no time and a case was registered against him.

He alleged that before going abroad, Rajinder Sidhu made senior vice-president Sukhdev Singh the acting president of the Khalsa Diwan.

However, Congress leaders made vice-president Gurmeet Singh join their party and later they elected him president without calling the general house, he added.

Later Gurmeet Singh constituted committees of various educational institutes in which all Congress leaders were included, Singla said.

When asked about who is controlling Khalsa Diwan, Singla said when Sukhdev Singh is the president and his committee had all accounts and members had signing authorities in their names, but the Congress-made committee is totally illegal.

Singla accused Tarloch Singh of becoming an agent of the Congress as he had been rewarded for lodging a complaint against Rajinder Singh Sidhu.

He is made the president of Khalsa Senior Secondary School, which also indicates a deal between the Congress and him.

SAD leaders Mayor Balwant Rai Nath, Sudhir Bansal, Harmander Singh, Nirmal Singh, Mohanjit Singh Puri, Bibi Davinder Kaur, Harpal Dhillon and others were present along with Singla in a press conference.