M A I N   N E W S

SAD gears up for Badal’s impending arrest
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 10
The President of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Mr Parkash Singh Badal, today formally conveyed to the highest policy-making Political Affairs Committee (PAC) of his party, that the Punjab Government had made all arrangements to book him and other members of his family in a criminal case.

Sources said Mr Badal shared the details of the case to be registered against him with members of the committee individually and collectively. The meeting of the PAC was held twice on this issue today — first in the morning and then in the evening.

Mr Parkash Singh Badal, former Chief Minister, addresses a press conference in Chandigarh on Tuesday. — A Tribune photograph

A resolution was passed at the evening meeting that the government, which had failed on all fronts, had been implicating Akali leaders in false cases. “The government has now conspired against Mr Badal and his family. For it the government would have to face strong protests in the state”, says the resolution. It also called upon the Akali workers to be ready to face the “challenge”.

Mr Badal did not share information regarding the case with mediapersons. “Though I know every detail of the case to be registered but I can’t disclose the same to you”, said Mr Badal. Sources said Mr Badal had been told about the contents of the case by his confidants in the state administration.

“We even know as to who vetted the final draft of the case to be registered, the officials involved and other details”, said a close associate of Mr Badal after the PAC meeting.

“Neither I nor my family would resist arrest in any manner. In fact, I would myself walk into any police station when asked to do so.” I want to convey to the police authorities concerned that “they need not make a midnight knock at my door”. They should just inform me and I would be available for arrest”, Mr Badal added.

“I am a law-abiding citizen and would answer all queries posed to me regarding the drainage scam, my property etc. Everything was legal about property and I have nothing to hide”, he claimed. He reiterated that he would quit politics and be prepared for any punishment if anyone proved that “I or my family owned property abroad”.

The party’s strategy in case he, his son, Sukhbir Singh Badal, and his wife, Mrs Surinder Kaur were booked in the case was also discussed at the meeting. Though no announcement has been made it is almost clear that the party cadres in the countryside would be mobilised to hold rallies, protest marches, and even bandhs.

To mobilise SAD workers, Mr Badal has announced a programme of party meetings in the first week of July. The first such meeting will be in Gurdaspur on July 5, followed by Amritsar (July 6), Moga (July 7), Jalandhar (July 8) and Hoshiarpur (July 9). In the absence of Mr Badal, a presidium of senior leaders is expected to take over the affairs of the party.

When asked whether he or his family would seek bail, Mr Badal said he would not go for pre-arrest bail.

No immediate move to nab Badal: police
Prabhjot Singh
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 10
“We will question Mr Parkash Singh Badal in all those cases wherever he has reportedly transgressed his position as Chief Minister,” reveal sources in the Punjab police, denying any immediate move to arrest him.

Mr Parkash Singh Badal, however, alleged that the government was all set to arrest him, his wife and his son before the coming panchayat elections to “demoralise” Shiromani Akali Dal workers. He maintained that he had authentic information about the cases being registered against him and members of his family. The delay had been caused by the recent incidents of caste violence in Jalandhar and the nearby areas.

The apprehensions of the Badal family notwithstanding, sources in the Police Department maintain that the former Chief Minister would be called to join investigations soon as his name figures in a couple of cases being investigated by the special investigating team looking into the irrigation scam.

“Asking him to clarify his position does not mean that we are going to summon him or arrest him. The situation of arresting him will arise only in case his explanation is not satisfactory,” the sources said.

It is not only the special investigation team (SIT) headed by the Additional Director-General of Police (Law and Order), Mr A.A. Siddiqui, which is investigating cases against Mr Parkash Singh Badal but also the vigilance cell headed by Mr A.P. Pandey, Additional Director-General of Police-cum-Chief Director, Vigilance Bureau, which is looking into various cases against the Badal family for possessing assets disproportionate to their known sources of income.

It is perhaps the vigilance cases in which the Badal family may be apprehending arrest. Besides looking into general allegations of “amassing of both movable and immovable in and outside Punjab by the Badal family during the five-year SAD-BJP rule in the state”, the bureau is specifically focusing on Orbit Resorts and other immovable properties in Haryana about which it claims to have made a breakthrough.

Orbit Resorts is in the name of Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, currently a member of the Rajya Sabha. The bureau had been summoning various agencies, including nationalised banks, to produce records, especially those pertaining to the advancing of loans to the company owned by the Badal family.

The major success for the bureau, according to the sources, came recently when it managed to win over a close aide of the family dealing in real estate. The bureau has already collected bagfuls of record pertaining to Orbit Resorts.

The bureau has been working overnight to procure evidence of immovable properties abroad owned by the family but it has met with no success. It also tried to locate immovable properties of the Badal family in North America by using the services of an Internet agency.

Badal convenes meeting
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 10
The President of the SAD, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, has convened an emergency meeting of the MLAs, MPs, former MLAs and MPs, district presidents for June 12 at Kalgidhar Niwas, here, according to a party spokesman.

A separate meeting of the SGPC members belonging to the party will also be held on the same day at the same venue.

The meetings have been called to chalk out the party’s strategy vis-a-vis the deteriorating law and order situation in the state. However, it appears that Mr Badal, who is apprehending arrest, wanted to discuss the issue with the party’s rank and file. The issue of panchayat elections will also be discussed.

Meanwhile, the SAD has demanded that the paramilitary forces should be deployed to hold the panchayat elections in Punjab.