CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today challenged chief minister Bhagwant Mann to register a case to substantiate the allegations made by him against SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal or apologise for uttering malicious lies, failing which he should be ready to face another defamation suit.
In a statement here, SAD chief spokesman Arshdeep Singh Kler said the false accusations levelled by the chief minister against Mr Sukhbir Badal vis a vis the Sukh Vilas resort had been done solely to divert attention from the zero FIR registered in the case involving the killing of youth farmer Shubhkaran at the hands of Haryana Police.
Asserting that this was not the first time the chief minister had indulged in such diversionary tactics when cornered, the SAD spokesman said “earlier Mr Bhagwant Mann had held a similar press conference to accuse former chief minister Charanjit Channi of taking a bribe of Rs 2 crore from a sportsman but failed to register a case in the matter”. He said the chief minister had on various occasions also lied that gangster Goldy Brar had been arrested and even claimed that the BMW company was setting up a car plant in Punjab. “Such falsities were uttered brazenly to divert attention from burning issues as has been done today”, Kler asserted.
Asking the chief minister what was his helplessness and why he had not ordered registration of a case into the allegations made by him, the Spokesman said “the Vigilance department is with the chief minister. Why has he not proceeded in this matter since the last two years”?
Telling the chief minister to either register a case or be ready to answer for his falsities in the court of law, Mr Kler said “a detailed rejoinder based on the true facts in the case will be given tomorrow”.