Chandigarh, June 2
Controversy following spat between Kings XI owner Ness Wadia and Mohali district police chief R.S. Khatra made the government ask Khatra to proceed on leave to defuse the issue in his absence.
According to sources, the Punjab government came up with this formula as it would have been difficult for Khatra to take back actions initiated by him against Ness Wadia and BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi.
Khatra had got a DDR entry made regarding the incident in which Wadia allegedly shouted at him because Punjab Police personnel had allegedly
pilfered some T-shirts and whiskey bottles from the VIP blocks in the Mohali cricket stadium. Wadia is also alleged to have shouted he was not in the habit of talking to such “low class” officers. The Mohali SSP had also moved to act against Lalit Modi because the latter had allegedly smoked in a no smoking area in the stadium.
According to sources, Khatra when told to proceed on leave to defuse the situation, which also includes demand for Rs 1.80 crore for security fee, promptly filed for ex-India leave for one month today. The leave was sanctioned within a few hours. Khatra when questioned said he had filed for leave to meet some friends in the United States.
Sources said the government was in a bind in this case as Khatra is very close to SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal. He is also known to carry political clout due to relations with heads of various ‘deras’ and cannot be taken lightly. However the fact that Sukhbir Badal is himself involved in the hosting of the IPL tournament in Mohali and that cricket administrator I. S. Bindra is also helping out the Badals’ to create a cricket stadium in their home turf meant that an amicable solution needed to be worked out.
Besides the problems with the IPL organisers, Khatra is also known to not get along with cooperation minister Capt Kanwaljit Singh and reportedly did not take orders to work under the former’s diktat during elections to the just concluded panchayati raj institutions. The SSP’s well-wishers however claim Mohali was one of the few districts in the state which witnessed holding of elections in a peaceful manner.
Earlier Khatra had rubbed state police chief N. P. S. Aulakh the wrong way by not adhering to his command to take action against persons involved in an alleged land grab case in an area where the DGP’s son has also purchased land.
