SIT on liquor mafia a ploy to hoodwink people of Punjab: Harpal Singh Cheema
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab senior leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Harpal Singh Cheema has described the three-member
Chandigarh: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab senior leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Harpal Singh Cheema has described the three-member Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by Cabinet Minister Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria to probe the illicit distilleries and liquor smuggling in the state, as a mere ploy to hoodwink innocent people of the state, dismissing out rightly and dubbing it as 'Sarkaria Clean Chit' commission.
He cautioned that AAP won’t allow it happen and would knock every door to wake up people and making them aware of all such scams involving the who’s who of polity and civil administration.
Cheema fired the salvo questioning the propriety of the minister heading the SIT, saying how could a minister do justice to the probe where the multi-billion rupee liquor trade had the patronage of the political high and mighty?
The LoP said that if Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh had been alive to the seriousness of the issue and a thorough probe into the illicit liquor and its open smuggling, he would have constituted a Judicial Inquiry Commission under the watch High Court, but was deliberately not done due to his alleged involvement in the illicit liquor trade in cahoots with liquor mafia lords.
Harpal Singh Cheema accused the Badals of adopting double standards and asked why Sukhbir Singh Badal and Bikram Singh Majithia never uttered a single word against Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on the issue of liquor mafia calling the shots in the state and his (CM’s) tacit support to have its way.
Cheema lamented that the role of Punjab Police in effectively dealing with all kinds of mafias in the state, including liquor mafia indulging in open smuggling liquor, saying both Captain and Badals had brought the entire law and order situation to an abysmal mess by politicalizing the Punjab force.