Amritsar, April 20
Firing a salvo against former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, Punjab Pardesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Rajinder Kaur Bhattal alleged that the slain militant’s wife, Sandeep Kaur, had written her “sensational autobiography” at the behest of Capt Amarinder Singh, who had “close links” with the Babbar Khalsa International.
“Can Sandeep Kaur tell the location of my village where leaders of the Babbar Khalsa used to take shelter as alleged in her autobiography?” she asked.
Terming the allegations made in “Bikhra Painda”, the book by Sandeep Kaur, wife of slain Babbar Khalsa militant Dharm Singh Kashtiwal, as a “cock and bull” story, Bhattal said, “I myself demand a high-level inquiry by any Central intelligence agency, including the Intelligence Bureau”.
She claimed that such an inquiry would establish without doubt that “the chief of the Babbar Khalsa, Sukhdev Singh Babbar, met Amarinder Singh at his Moti Bagh Palace, before he was killed in a police encounter at Patiala”.
She further alleged that Amarinder Singh used to fund Sandeep Kaur during his stint as Chief Minister and “persuaded her to write an autobiography with a view to tarnishing the image of senior Congress leaders”.
Virtually upset over the seeking of IB inquiry by Capt Amarinder Singh, Bhattal suggested that the former Chief Minister should get counselling by a psychiatrist.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has said there was no need of ordering any sort of inquiry into the allegations.
On the other hand, Sandeep Kaur, while talking to The Tribune at her residence here, claimed that the revelations
made in her autobiography that Congress leaders had supported the militants during the peak of militancy was “just a tip of the iceberg”.
“I shall also expose more leaders of different parties, including a former SGPC chief, in the second edition of her book,” she said.
In the autobiography, Sandeep Kaur has mentioned that the house of big landlord of Jalandhar was also frequently visited by the then PPCC chief Beant Singh during the assembly election campaign in 1992 where she and other militants used to take shelter.
She has also alleged that two militants would also campaign in the election of Lakhmir Singh Randhawa, a former Congress minister.
However, Bhattal alleged that it was an open secret that Jagtar Singh Hawara, a top Babbar leader who was one of the assassins of the then Chief Minister Beant Singh, had also “close links” with Amarinder Singh. “Myself being a daughter of great freedom fighter had been a victim of militancy as her own nephew was kidnapped by the militants.”
“I would also ask the party high command to order an inquiry into the visits of Amarinder Singh to Pakistan, Dubai and Canada where he allegedly met “militants”.
“It is written on the wall that my entire family had fought terrorism and for that we were getting threatening letters from the militants,” she said.
However, while addressing the media, Amarinder Singh sought a high-level inquiry into the links of Bhattal with Sikh militants.
