AAP leader occupied my house, says Nabha EO after trailer parts’ recovery

A day after the police recovered tractor-trailer parts and other material allegedly stolen from the Shambhu Morcha from the official residence of Nabha Executive Officer (EO) Gurcharan Singh, he issued an open letter stating that the house was occupied by AAP leader Pankaj Kumar Pappu, who is a husband of Municipal Council chief Sujata Chawla.

Gurcharan claimed that despite several reminders, the premises were not vacated. He said he had apprised senior vice-president Amarjit Kaur, who was appointed acting MC president after Chawla proceeded on leave on August 30. He added that officials who objected to the “wrongdoings” of Munish Kumar — a local political functionary — were routinely targeted with no-confidence resolutions. Similar resolutions, he said, were brought against former EO Parwinder Singh in September 2022 and against him in January 2024.

Farm leaders said the recovered parts were from the same stock — valued around Rs 3.70 crore — that went missing when the police forcibly cleared the Shambhu and Khanauri protest sites in March.

Farm leader Gamdur Singh claimed that the police initially “tried to suppress the matter”, and that the recovery was made possible only due to “continuous pressure”. He said farmers had been staging a protest outside the Nabha MC’s office for the past three days, insisting that excavation be carried out.

The first breakthrough came when stolen material was found at Pappu’s workshop on August 27. On October 28, a trailer belonging to a Kapurthala-based farmer was found abandoned in a nearby village. Its iron angles were recovered from the EO’s residence on Wednesday.

Alleging “deliberate” delay in probe, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) has announced a rail blockade on December 19 to press for the recovery of remaining missing material and action against the accused.

Pappu denies charges

Pappu, who faces two FIRs in the case, denied the allegations and said he was being “politically targeted” by several MC members. “My wife was the Nabha MC president. She tendered her resignation three months ago. We are being vilified because of our association with AAP,” he said. “The material found in the EO’s garden may have been buried recently by someone wishing to malign our image,” he said.