Now, friction in Congress over SAD leader’s illegal mining charge in Punjab

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, June 28

With the Assembly polls slated next year, the infighting in the Punjab Congress is getting murkier by the day. Now, Congress MLA from Gidderbaha Amarinder Singh Raja Warring has tweeted a video of SAD ex-MLA Sarup Chand Singla in which he is alleging illegal sand mining on the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant land by Finance Minister Manpreet Badal and his brother-in-law Jaijeet Singh Johal, alias Jojo.

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Warring has also tagged CM Capt Amarinder Singh in it and demanded a thorough probe into the matter. Later, even Congress MP from Ludhiana Ravneet Bittu retweeted Warring’s tweets.

This is happening at a time when the Congress high command in New Delhi is holding regular meetings to resolve the infighting and put up a united front ahead of the Assembly polls in 2022.

On Sunday, SAD leader Sarup Chand Singla did a live session and showed trucks being loaded in the area. Singla had accused Manpreet and Johal of being involved in the illegal sand mining. Singla also accused truck drivers of attacking him while he was shooting the video.

Posting the video of SAD leader, Warring also tweeted: “Capt Amarinder ji, please take action against the people who are responsible. These are the people who are pulling the Congress down.”

After some time, even Johal posted an old video pertaining to Faridkot murder case linked with Warring’s brother-in-law Dimpy Vinayak and asked Capt Amarinder Singh to conduct a thorough probe into this murder case.

In February this year, a Faridkot-based contractor Naresh Kataria had killed his two children and wife before shooting himself. Kataria’s suicide note had accused Vinayak of forcing him to take this step. An inquiry into this case is going on.

Manpreet’s office, however, refuted the allegations levelled by Singla. Senior Deputy Mayor Ashok Kumar and Bhatinda Improvement Trust Chairman KK Aggarwal said Singla was trying to mislead people by making allegations as he didn’t know the difference between sand and fly ash.

However, party sources claimed rivalry between Manpreet and Warring was not new. In the 2012 Assembly polls, Warring defeated Manpreet, who then contested on PPP ticket from Gidderbaha. Later, Warring lost from the Bathinda urban constituency represented by Manpreet against SAD Harimsrat Kaur Badal in the General Elections in 2019.

SIT to probe matter, FM denies allegation

• Acting on the complaint of SAD ex-MLA Sarup Chand Singla, Bathinda SSP Bhupinderjeet Singh Virk on Monday constituted a three-member SIT, comprising the SP (City), DSP and thermal plant police station SHO, to probe the matter
• Singla on Sunday aired a video showing alleged illegal sand mining on Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant land and accused Finance Minister Manpreet Badal and his brother-in-law Jaijeet Singh Johal for it
• The Finance Minister’s office, however, refuted the allegations levelled by the SAD leader