Anti-Sikh riots petitioner H.S. Phoolka resigns from AAP

Senior advocate H.S. Phoolka on Thursday submitted his resignation from the Aam Aadmi Party to party chief Arvind Kejriwal.

Phoolka, representing the victims of 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, thanked Kejriwal for giving him an opportunity to "serve the party".

"I have resigned from AAP and handed over the resignation to Kejriwal ji today. Though he asked me not to resign, I insisted," he said.

However, the former Punjab MLA did not reveal the reason for his resignation.

"Will be briefing media tomorrow... to explain the reason of leaving AAP and my further plans," he added.

Phoolka, who joined AAP in 2014 and was voted to Punjab Assembly from Dakha, had resigned from the Assembly as an MLA in October last year.

He had announced that he would resign from the Assembly if the Congress government in Punjab led by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh did not take action against those behind the incidents of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib and the police firing in October 2015 on those protesting against the sacrilege incidents.

Phoolka has demanded the government should register cases against former Chief Minister and senior Shiromani Akali Dal leader Parkash Singh Badal, SAD president and former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and former director general of police (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini.

Earlier, in July 2017, Phoolka resigned from the post of Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly to continue to fight cases of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots victims in courts after the Delhi Bar Council disallowed him from contesting the cases of riot victims, saying he held an "office of profit" as Leader of Opposition.

He also contested the 2014 Lok Sabha from Ludhiana from AAP, but lost to the Congress candidate.

--IANS

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