Langah’s political journey marred by controversies

Vishav Bharti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 1

Senior Akali leader Sucha Singh Langah is known as “history-sheeter” among his contemporaries. His photograph remained hanging on the notice board of Gurdaspur’s Sadar police station for decades along with other criminals, recalls former minister Sucha Singh Chhotepur, who was a senior Akali leader in Gurdaspur district when Langah entered politics.

Chhotepur says in the 1980s, Langah joined the SAD with Khalistan Commando Force chief Wassan Singh Zaffarwal as his political mentor. Both were also close relatives.

Veteran journalist Jagtar Singh, who was the Indian Express correspondent in Amritsar region, says the Khalistan militant had immense influence in Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran. Before and even after flirting with the Khalistani movement, Langah was known for grabbing land and having links with smugglers.

Chhotepur says Langah’s closeness with Zaffarwal brought him close to the then SAD chief Parkash Singh Badal as well. However, his political fortunes changed when in 1997, Langah was given SAD ticket from Dhariwal. He was elected as an MLA and was made PWD Minister.

But there was not much change in his record. He faced allegations of sheltering Zaffarwal and of land grab quite often.

On government’s intervention, his history sheet was converted into a personal file at Gurdaspur police station. Langah was refused a passport by RPO, Jalandhar, in 1992, but he procured one from Chandigarh in 1998, by “concocting facts’’, which the VB found in 2002.

He lost to Independent candidate Chhotepur in 2002. Soon after, the Congress formed the government in the state and he was one of the first Akali leaders to be booked by the Vigilance in disproportionate assets case. “In police custody, he was tortured and the court had to intervene on several occasions,” says Jagtar Singh.

“He confessed that he and his brothers inherited just around three acres of land,” says Chhotepur. The VB, however, found that he had 35 acres of land at Purewal Jata village in Gurdaspur and 28 godowns in the name of his wife Harbhajan Kaur. In 2007, he was again elected to the state Assembly and was made Agriculture Minister. He lost the 2012 Assembly election.

But a big question mark was put on his political carrier when he was awarded three-year imprisonment by a Mohali court in the disproportionate assets case.

He was still keen on contesting the elections this year, but was not allowed. “The sad state of affairs is such that the man of such a character is now aspiring to be SGPC president,” says Jagtar Singh.

History-sheeter

• Akali leader Sucha Singh Langah is known as "history-sheeter" among his contemporaries
• Faced several land grab cases and charges of having links with smugglers 
• Was refused a passport by RPO, Jalandhar, in 1992, but procured one from Chandigarh in 1998, by ‘concocting facts’
• Booked by the Vigilance in a case of disproportionate assets in 2002
• Awarded three-year imprisonment in the case in 2015