Amarinder's only aim is to put me in jail: Badal

Former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal Thursday said that his successor Amarinder Singh's only aim was to put him behind bars.

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patriarch was reacting to the chief minister's address in the Punjab Assembly on Tuesday wherein he vowed to punish those guilty of the "horrendous" 2015 sacrilege incidents in the state.

"I am prepared to go to jail as their (state government) only aim is to arrest me... I am not afraid of being arrested," the five-time chief minister told media here.

"After reading what Amarinder had said in the assembly, I straightaway came from my village to Chandigarh... I told the DGP that I am available for arrest... I am prepared to go to any jail in the country," Badal said, adding that his fight against the policies of the Congress would continue.

 

Winding up the discussion on the Governor's address in the ongoing Punjab budget session here, Singh spoke on incidents of sacrilege of religious texts and said that they occurred because of the "failure of the law and order system" during the SAD regime.

"What was that (sacrilege incidents). It was a failure of the law and order system," Singh had said while pointing out that the Badal government had failed to accept even their own Commission's report into the sacrilege incidents.

Amarinder had further informed the House that the Special Investigative Team formed to probe sacrilege and police firing incidents was doing its work and that he would take the findings of the Ranjit Singh Commission report to their logical conclusion.

However, Badal termed the SIT and the Commission set up by the Congress government as a "drama" and asserted: "Amarinder's only goal is to put me in jail."

The SAD leader further said that the Congress wanted to take control of the Sikh shrines in the state.

"A person who is CM should keep himself away from such things," he added.

However, if there were any shortcomings in the probe of sacrilege incidents by the SAD-BJP combine government, then I apologise for it, Badal said further.

On February18, the SIT probing the police firing at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura on anti-sacrilege protesters, had arrested Inspector General Paramraj Singh Umranangal on the basis of evidence that he was in command and the procedure adopted to open fire was not correct.

Two persons were killed in the police firing in Behbal Kalan of Faridkot district.

The SIT set up to probe the case had last month arrested former Moga district police chief SSP Charanjit Singh Sharma who led a police party that allegedly opened fire at the anti-sacrilege protesters.

Sharma's arrest was the first in the case after SIT was formed last year after his name was added along with other police officers in an FIR registered atthe Baja Khana PoliceStation inFaridkot for murder and attempt to murder.

Their names were added on recommendations of the Ranjit Singh commission report.

Thestate governmenthad formed a five-member SIT, headed by Prabodh Kumar, Director,Bureau of Investigations(BOI), to probe sacrilege and related police firing incidents.