Chandigarh: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today asked chief minister Bhagwant Mann and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Convener Arvind Kejriwal to tell Punjabis if they were shielding party’s Bathinda Rural legislator Amit Rattan because they were also beneficiaries of the latter’s ill gotten wealth.
Talking to newsmen here, the SAD President said it was abhorrent that the AAP government had got into rescue mode immediately after the corrupt AAP mla from Bathinda had been caught red handed by the Vigilance department while accepting a bribe of Rs 5 lakh from the sarpanch of Ghudda village instead of arresting him.
Asserting that this could have only been done on orders of the chief minister or Arvind Kejriwal, Sukhbir Badal said “there is a recording of Amit Rattan demanding a bribe of Rs 5 lakh from the sarpanch. The MLA was videographed as being physically present at the Bathinda circuit house when the bribe was handed over to him”.
He said despite all this evidence, a crude attempt was made to save Amit Rattan by putting all blame on his personal assistant who was also being now described as a private person. “If this was true then why did Amit Rattan need to flee from the circuit house from a back gate which has also been captured on CCTV?” Badal asked.
Congress leader of opposition Partap Bajwa also attacked the Mann government and sought immediate arrest of MLA.
He accused AAP of shielding corrupt leaders and dared CM Mann to act what he preaches and take action against venal leaders.
He also slammed CM for disrespecting the governor post and not furnishing information sought by the Punjab governor Banwarilal Purohit.
Reacting to this, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday reiterated its government’s firm stand and said that the Bhagwant Mann government has adopted a zero-tolerance policy towards corruption and no officer or leader will be spared, who found indulged in the malpractices.
Issuing a statement here, the state’s chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang said in Punjab, the Mann government has already shown that AAP has adopted zero tolerance towards corruption by throwing out even its own party leaders, who were found indulging in corruption. He said that whether a minister or a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA), the corrupt will not be spared at any cost.
Lashing out at the opposition for raising fingers at the working of the AAP government, Kang said that Congress, SAD and BJP, had patronized corruption and mafia during their regime but the AAP party will not tolerate it and all erring people will be dealt with iron hands.
Attacking LoP leader Partap Singh Bajwa, he said that Bajwa, who was sidelined in the Congress, is levelling baseless allegations against the government just to save his political career.