Chandigarh, August 4 – Former minister and senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia today demanded immediate registration of a criminal case against former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi for duping four ex-servicemen from the scheduled caste community and two others of Rs 45 lakhs on the pretext of inducting them into the Punjab Police.
Addressing a press conference here along with the ex-servicemen who alleged that the Punjab Police had refused to include the former chief minister’s name in the complaint filed by them, Mr Bikram Majithia said “it seems chief minister Bhagwant Mann has now come to an understanding with Mr Channi and this is why no action is being taken by the police in this case”.
Giving details of the case, Mr Majithia said four ex-servicemen had been approached by a Channi confidant – Daljit Singh and promised that they would be appointed as sub inspectors in the Punjab Police. He said two others, who had also given varying sums to Daljit, had been promised jobs in the Punjab Police.
One of the ex-servicemen – Gurdial Singh while explaining the entire issue said they had met Channi along with Daljit with a request to be recruited as sub inspectors in the Punjab Police. He said when they had asked the then chief minister of the ‘sewa paani’ necessary to get this done Channi had told them that Daljit would tell them everything required from their side. Gurmail said following this he had paid Rs 17 lakh even as ex-servicemen Jagdish Singh had paid Rs 6 lakh and ex-servicemen Darshan Singh and Dharminder Singh had paid Rs 5 lakh each”. He said two other persons – Navdeep Singh and Bachittar Singh had paid Rs 5 lakh and Rs 3.70 lakh respectively. He also disclosed with videographic proof of how a Channi confidant – Robin had collected money from him personally.
Giving further details, Gurmail said “I met Channi in April 2021 and November 2021 and the latter even issued the ex-servicemen a letter along with a pass from the DGP’s office so that we could meet the DGP on November 10, 2021”. He said when nothing further happened and they realized they had been duped they approached the Amritsar Rural police but it refused to register a case in the matter. “Finally a case was registered against Daljit when the BKU Ugrahan group held a dharna in our support but even then the former chief minister’s name has not been included in the FIR”, Gurdial added.
Mr Bikram Majithia said Gurdial and his associates were being denied justice by the AAP government because Mr Channi had mended his fences with the chief minister. “It is because of this that the chief minister has even forgotten about the Rs 2 crore bribery allegation he had made against Mr Channi in which no case has been registered so far”. He said in case the government did not act against Channi the SAD would approach the Governor besides taking legal recourse in the case.
The SAD leader also disclosed how earlier also the former chief minister’s nephew – Honey had been caught red handed by central agencies with ill gotten wealth of Rs 10 crore. “Honey had been given security cover by the team allocated to guard the chief minister. It is obvious that he was collecting bribes on behalf of Channi. Instead of getting to the bottom of this case as well as several other bribery allegations leveled against Mr Channi, the chief minister now seems to have decided to spare the latter especially after the help extended by the former chief minister to the AAP candidate in the Jalandhar Lok Sabha election”, Mr Majithia added.
| Gurbani World