Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira arrested by Punjab Police in drugs case
Punjab,Sept 28 : The Punjab Police on Thursday arrested Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira in an old drugs-related case, following raids at his bungalow in Chandigarh.
Officials from the Jalalabad police station raided Khaira’s Sector 5 residence early in the morning, in connection with an old case registered against him under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Khaira went live on Facebook during the raids, wherein he is seen arguing with the police. In the live video recorded by one of his family members, Khaira can be heard asking the police for a warrant and inquiring about the reason for his arrest.
An official, who identifies himself as DSP Jalalabad Acchru Ram Sharma in the video, tells Khaira that he is being arrested for an old NDPS case. Khaira claims that the case was quashed by the Supreme Court and opposes the arrest. Arguing further, he claims that the move is politically motivated.
The officials, some of them dressed in plain clothes, take Khaira into custody amid resistance from the MLA and his family. Before getting into the police van, Khaira can be seen smiling, as he gives a message with an assertion of his innocence to his viewers.
Khaira is a Congress MLA from the Bholath constituency in Punjab, and the chairman of the All India Kisan Congress.
The drugs case was registered against him in March 2015 at Jalalabad in Fazilka. Nine people were booked in the case and later convicted under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
CONGRESS, SHIROMANI AKALI DAL CONDEMN ARREST
Condemning Khaira’s arrest, Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa criticised the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led Punjab government.
“The arrest of Senior Congress Leader and Bolath MLA Sukhpal Khaira is extremely deplorable. The AAP government has stooped to an all-time low and resorted to vendetta politics. Sukhpal Singh Khaira has been outspoken and raised his voice against the wrongdoings and irregularities committed by the CM Bhagwant Mann’s govt. The Punjab Congress under the ambit of law will leave no stone unturned to get him released,” Bajwa wrote in a post on X(formerly Twitter).
President of Punjab Congress Amarinder Singh Warring also took to X and called the arrest a ploy by the Punjab government to distract people from the core issues.
“The recent arrest of Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira ji smacks of Political Vendetta, it is an attempt to intimidate the opposition and is a ploy of the Punjab govt to distract from core issues. We stand strongly with Sukhpal Khaira and will take this fight to its logical conclusion,” Warring wrote in a social media post.
The Shiromani Akali Dal called the arrest a “political vendetta”. “Political differences aside – Shiromani Akali Dal Amritsar condemns the arrest borne out of the witch hunt and political vendetta against Bholath MLA and a very respected Sukhpal Jhaira Ji, a fierce critic of Bhagwant Mann and AAP led Punjab government. What promised to be a ‘badlav’ is turning out to be a horror show,” Shiromani Akali Dal’s post on X (formerly Twitter) reads.
The arrest comes amidst a political rift between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress, members of the Opposition bloc INDIA, in the state.
Tensions mounted between the two parties after AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal announced that his party would contest all 13 seats in the Lok Sabha elections. Soon after, Congress also declared that it would contest all the seats in Punjab.
-PTI
