Phoolka offers to quit as Pb MLA, seeks case against Badal

AAP MLA H S Phoolka Saturday vowed to resign as legislator if the Congress led Punjab government failed to book former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and retired DGP Sumedh Singh Saini for the police firing incidents at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan.

Phoolka gave a 15-day ultimatum to cabinet ministers Sukhjinder Randhawa, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Charanjit Singh Channi, Manpreet Singh Badal and Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, asking them to get a case of murder registered against Badal and Saini.

"I've given a 15-day ultimatum to the five cabinet ministers to get the case registered against Badal and Saini and thereafter SIT should investigate. If they cannot do it, then they should resign from their posts," Phoolka said while talking to reporters here.

"I will be the first one to quit on September 16 if these ministers fail to get a case registered against Badal and Saini till September 15," added the legislator from Dakha seat.

Phoolka alleged most of the Congress MLAs including the five ministers had demanded while participating in the discussion on the sacrilege report in Vidhan Sabha that both Badal and Saini be made accused in the police firing case.

However, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh did not accept the demand of the ministers, said Phoolka.

Phoolka, who has been fighting cases of 1984 anti-Sikh riot victims, said that due procedure was not followed by the police in firing incidents and Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan in which two people died in 2015.

The cops who had fired on peaceful anti-sacrilege protesters were not less than "gangsters", said Phoolka.

The former leader of opposition said that people felt "cheated" as despite a long discussion over the sacrilege report in the state assembly, nothing "tangible" came out of it.

Citing report of Justice Ranjit Singh Commission, Phoolka said Badal and Saini could not be made accused in connection with sacrilege incidents and only Dera Sacha Sauda head could be booked, alleging that some Dera workers were involved in the sacrilege of religious texts.

The Punjab chief minister had on August 28 announced that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Punjab Police would launch a time-bound investigation into the sacrilege cases as well as the firing incidents by withdrawing cases from the CBI.

The state government has already booked four cops including the then SSP Moga Charanjit Sharma on the charge of murder pertaining to police action in Behbal Kalan firing.

The government has issued show cause notices to several senior police officials including the then Director General of Police (DGP) Saini whose role came under scanner in the firing incidents.