Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab has demanded the Governor of the state to file a criminal case against Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi in the matter of sand mafia. On Monday, a delegation of AAP led by AAP's Punjab affairs co-in-charge and MLA from Delhi Raghav Chadha met Punjab's Hon'ble Governor Banwari Lal Purohit and submitted a memorandum. The delegation informed the Governor that crores of rupees and sensational documents seized in the ED raids from the relatives in the case of illegal sand mining belongs to Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and demanded a more thorough and impartial inquiry into the matter.After the meeting, Raghav Chadha briefed the media and said that the Hon'ble Governor took his (AAP) complaint seriously. In the memorandum, AAP have informed the governor about the raids and evidence found in village Jindapur, CM Channi’s constituency Chamkaur Sahib, and also about Rs. 10 crore cash, Rolex watch, gold worth Rs 22 lakh, expensive vehicles, Rs 54 crore bank liabilities and real estate registries from Channi's nephew's house. He demanded that a legal case against Chief Minister Channi should be filed.
Mr. Chadha said that AAP had been alleging for a long time that sand mafia was operating in Punjab under the patronage of Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi. Illegal sand is being excavated in village Jindapur of Chief Minister's Channi Assembly constituency Sri Chamkaur Sahib. The sand mafia is even stealing sand from the forest department land and the Chief Minister did not take any action despite complain. He said that former Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh had claimed that even when Channi was Minister, he was running the sand mafia and Capt. had taken the matter up with Congress National President Sonia Gandhi. Raghav Chadha said that instead of taking action against Charanjit Singh Channi, Congress High Command had promoted him from Minister to Chief Minister, which raised the suspicion that money of Punjab’s sand mafia was reaching the top leadership of Congress too.
The AAP leader said the house of one nephew of Chief Minister Channi was raided by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), just think how much money the other relatives of the Chief Minister must have swindled. He said that it was a matter of concern that Charanjit Singh Channi had been the Chief Minister of Punjab only for 111 days, if he had been the CM for 5 years, how much wealth would he have amassed.Responding to a query, Raghav Chadha said that there was no denying that raid on Chief Minister Channi's relative was part of political vendetta. But the recovery of crores of rupees, lakhs of gold and other assets from a person's house also raises suspicions and demands an impartial inquiry. So, the Aam Aadmi Party demanded that the Punjab Police should register a case against the Chief Minister Channi, his relatives and associates and an impartial inquiry should be conducted by the Governor.