Even as party leader Sunil Jakhar described the Fazilka jail as an extension of Sukhbir’s Sukhvillas for criminals, Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday declared he would expose and punish the Badals in the Nabha jail break case and the Fazilka sub-jail episode.Addressing a press conference here, Captain Amarinder said the Fazilka incident had exposed the nexus between the Badals and the criminals in the state, which was in the grip of total lawlessness, with as many as 52 armed gangs on the loose, as per the DGP’s own admission.Jakhar, who earlier went to submit a memorandum on the issue on behalf of Captain Amarinder and the party to the state Chief Electoral Officer V.K. Singh, said the Badal government was still influencing the probe into the incident and was soft peddling the case. The police were trying to save the culprits by distorting facts and were lying that the meeting was held in the superintendent’s office, he added. Jakhar said he had requested Singh to send a team to ascertain how many people could fit in the superintendent’s office, and added he was sure not more than six could be accommodated, while the total number of people caught attending the meeting were more than two dozen.Demanding addition of charges under various sections in the case, Jakhar said the jail was nothing but an extension of Sukhbir Singh Badal’s Sukhvillas, with an entry charge of Rs. 3.25 lakh (the amount seized from the prison) whereas Sukhvillas charge Rs. 5 lakh for a night.In its memorandum, the Congress has demanded immediate dismissal of the Badal government in the light of the Fazilka sub-jail incident and conduct of the Assembly elections under President’s Rule to prevent any interference or disturbance in the poll process, besides handing over of the investigation into the case to a central agency.
Jakhar complemented Singh on successfully reining in the Akali-patronized goons, pointing out that the Badal government had failed to check the spread of goondaism in the state over the past 10 years.Jakhar said the incident had exposed the nefarious links of the ruling SAD with criminals and gangsters in Punjab, and once again shown that free and fair elections in the state were not possible under the Badal-led SAD regime. Questioning the mode of entry of so many people into the jail, Jakhar said they had either forced their entry, amounting to criminal trespass or jail break, or they had bribed their way, in which case appropriate charges under Prevention of Corruption Act should be framed against them. Alleging that the entry showed complicity of higher-ups, Jakhar asked why the murder accused and Sukhbir’s henchmarn Shiv Lala Doda’s name was not mentioned in the FIR, and added that he had requested that the jail superintendent’s statement be made public. He also demanded that the call records of the concerned DC and the DSP be made public to find out how many times Sukhbir had called and intervened since the raid started. He further questioned why the SSP had not been involved in the raid, and added that if the election office had no faith in the SSP then the situation on the ground was really bad.In its memorandum, the Punjab Congress expressed the apprehension that the meeting in the jail premises was held to plan large-scale disruption during the coming elections.
The memorandum went on to state that the incident had raised several pertinent questions, requiring a thorough independent probe by a central agency since the local police, which is under the control of the SAD government, could not be expected to carry out a fair investigation in the case.In fact, said the memorandum, photographs showed that Doda was being provided all modern facilities, including AC, radiator, bed, carpet etc in the prison, from where he appeared to be conducting his nefarious business.The PPCC leaders asked through the memorandum why the prison officials had been merely suspended and not arrested for violation of various laws and why no action had been taken against the criminals involved in the incident.In the memorandum, the PPCC leaders said the incident assumes even more significance in the light of the Nabha jail break, where five gangsters had escaped from the high-security prison and not one had been rearrested.They urged the EC, which had on Wednesday ordered the Fazilka prison raid, to take the matter to its logical conclusion and place the state under President’s Rule so that the democratic process of elections could be held without interference or disturbance.