SAD chief Sukhbir Badal offers to court arrest in Punjab DGP office

Sukhbir Singh Badal

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Thursday said he offered to court arrest and "dared" the Punjab DGP to lodge an FIR against him as he accused the Bhagwant Mann government of misusing police to target the party leadership under the garb of ongoing investigation into the missing 'saroops' case.

SAD's core committee members led by Badal on Thursday reached the office of Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav in Chandigarh and expressed their displeasure for allegedly harassing party leaders and workers.

They went to the DGP office immediately after holding the party's core committee meeting here.

As the senior leaders of the party were meeting the DGP, several party workers gathered outside the Punjab Police headquarters and raised slogans against the AAP government.

The Chandigarh Police deployed personnel outside the Punjab Police headquarters in the wake of a gathering of Akali leaders and workers.

Speaking to reporters after meeting the DGP, Badal accused the Mann government of misusing police to register false cases against Akali workers.

He said the police job was to maintain law and order, take action against gangsters but the government here turned it into its "private army" for registering false cases and arresting anyone whom it wants.

Badal alleged that the AAP government is using the ongoing investigation into the 328 missing 'saroops' (sacred copies) of the Guru Granth Sahib matter to "target" the Akali leadership.

"They are not probing the 'saroops' matter. They are targeting how to arrest Sukhbir Badal," alleged the SAD chief.

He claimed that a special investigation team probing into the missing 'saroops' case raided the premises of his chartered accountant in Ludhiana who has no connection with the SGPC.

They took away the balance sheets of my companies, he claimed.

"Therefore, we today decided that we should go directly to the DGP office and dare him to lodge an FIR...I dared him to lodge an FIR against me, and bring a search warrant. Had I run away anywhere," he asked.

He also asserted that all his business concerns were in public domain and that despite claims by Chief Minister Mann to "demolish" the Sukh Vilas resort and stop his bus company from plying in Punjab, nothing could be done as "everything was legal".

"They think they can scare us. SAD is not afraid of anyone," said Badal.

Asserting that SAD would not take this "goondaism" lying down, Badal said "the core committee has taken a serious note of the entire issue and decided to come on the roads in case the government continues to harass the SAD leadership in this manner. I also want to warn AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal not to misuse the Punjab Police".

He also asserted that the AAP government had become desperate to stop the rising popularity of SAD and that a "false" case had been registered against senior leader Bikram Singh Majithia to stop him from raising the people's voice.

The SIT of the Punjab Police is probing the 328 missing 'saroops' of the Guru Granth Sahib case.

The Amritsar police had registered a case on December 7 last year against 16 people, including a former SGPC official in connection with the disappearance of 'saroops'.

The police had arrested chartered accountant Satinder Singh Kohli in connection with the case. Kohli, considered close to SAD president Badal, is one of the accused in this case.

Kohli's firm had remained an internal auditor of the SGPC. However, its services were terminated in 2020.

The FIR had been registered under sections 295 (injuring or defiling a place of worship or sacred object with intent to insult a religion), 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 409 (criminal breach of trust), 465 (forgery) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.

The matter regarding the disappearance of 'saroops' from the SGPC's publication house in Amritsar came to light in June 2020, leading to a major controversy at that time.