Chandigarh: A joint SAD- BJP delegation today submitted a memorandum to the Vidhan Sabha Speaker demanding the immediate removal of AAP leader Sukhpal Khaira from the post of leader of opposition even as it expressed apprehension that the Congress government was not serious about arresting Khaira. 

SAD leader Bikram Majithia said the Speaker agreed with the delegation that “Khaira’s deplorable actions were a blot on the image of the august House and assured to look into the matter expeditiously”. Majithia, however, said even as the court had proceeded against Sukhpal Khaira, “the Congress government was dragging its feet in taking action against him”. 

Asking the Congress government “not to give kid-glove treatment to Khaira”, the SAD leader said: “The AAP leader should be arrested immediately as non-bailable warrants had been issued against him.” “Moreover, a supplementary challan can be produced against Khaira only if he is subjected to custodial interrogation,” he added. 

The Akali leader also asked AAP Convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to explain “why he was maintaining a studious silence on this sensitive issue and had not even directed Khaira to submit himself to the process of law”. “Kejriwal was fond of saying that he will make Punjab drugs free.

Will he now stand up and expel Khaira from his party to at least make the AAP unit of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha drug-free? If he does not do this it will seem that he is also compromised with drug money,” Majithia said.