Chandigarh, March 25
Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring today asked the Bharatiya Janata Party as who was stopping its government at the centre from ordering a CBI inquiry into the suicide of Warehousing Corporation District Manager Dr Gagandeep Singh Randhawa. He also clarified that he has not opposed the CBI inquiry but only insisted that any investigation must be done under the supervision of a sitting High Court or Supreme Court judge.
Addressing a press conference here today, the PPCC president strongly refuted the suggestions that he had opposed the demand of a CBI inquiry. He clarified that personally he felt that even the CBI inquiry may not be foolproof as the agency has a poor record of taking the cases to the logical conclusion. Moreover, he added, the agency has lost its credibility under the BJP regime. Making things clear, he said, he stands by his parliamentarian party colleagues. He said he had not signed the letter since he was not in Delhi that day, but in Khatkar Kalan in connection with the martyrdom day celebrations of Shaheed Bhagat Singh.
Warring disclosed that the matter was raised by his party colleague and Amritsar MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla who had demanded the NIA inquiry since the family had revealed that Gagandeep had been threatened in the name of gangsters. He said that the union Home Minister had asked the party MPs to give in writing and he will order the CBI inquiry. “Now so many days have passed, why has the HM not ordered the inquiry?” he asked.
“I have never opposed the CBI probe”, Warring asserted while asking when the BJP does not take any time to send CBI, NIA, ED teams to intimidate its political opponents, what is preventing it from ordering the CBI inquiry into the suicide? “Does the union Home Minister need a letter to order any inquiry?” he asked, while adding, and in any case he already has a letter from the Congress MPs with him.
Warring reiterated and reaffirmed that everyone in the Congress wants justice for the family. “If my colleagues have demanded the CBI probe, I want it to be monitored by the High Court so that there is no scope of manipulations”, he said, adding, the BJP and the AAP are already colluding with each other and that is why he has been insisting on judicial oversight of the inquiry. He also referred to the unusual delay by the union Home Minister in ordering the CBI probe.
Condemning the attempts to make political capital out of the tragic incident, he criticized the BJP leader Sunil Jakhar for enacting a drama by submitting a memorandum to the Governor for the CBI inquiry. He pointed out, the Congress MPs have already submitted in writing to the Home Minister so many days ago, who is stopping them from ordering the CBI inquiry?
Responding to the charges of Sukhbir Badal that he was colluding with Bhagwant Mann, Warring said, it is the other way round. He pointed out, the AAP ministers had claimed that they will demolish the Sukhvilas, the five star hotel owned by Sukhbir which has been constructed after cutting the forests. “Did anything happen to that hotel or did Mann stop any of the buses of Sukhbir?” he asked, while pointing out how the AAP government took no time to demolish the hotel owned by a prominent newspaper group.
Warring said, there was a reason for everyone from Bhagwant Mann, to Sukhbir Badal, Sunil Jakhar, Bikram Majithia and Ravneet Singh Bittu targeting him as they were feeling threatened by him. He took a dig at Bittu for calling him a traitor. “It is like the pot calling the kettle black”, he remarked about Bittu while pointing out how he had betrayed the Congress and joined the BJP. On the Chief Minister’s reference to an old suicide case, Warring clarified, his name was neither mentioned by the victim’s family nor in any FIR. He said, the victim’s family is like his own family.
