DW BUREAU / Chandigarh

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was colluding with radical criminals to eliminate its political opponents and that it had purposely botched the investigation into the murderous attack on S Sukhbir Singh Badal on December 4 at Sri Darbar Sahib, Amritsar in order to secure bail for Chaura.

Addressing a press conference here, senior SAD leaders Maheshinder Singh Grewal and Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said the Amritsar Police deliberately did not record the statement of the victim in the Sri Darbar Sahib attack ? S Sukhbir Singh Badal. "It also did not seek sanction under Section 39 of the Arms Act", the leaders said adding both these deficiencies in investigation had paved the way for grant of bail to Narayan Chaura in a mere three and a half months".

The leaders also pointed out that the confessional statement of Narayan Chaura stated that he had stored a cache of arms and bomb making material at a 'dera' in Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh with the aim of reviving terrorism in Punjab. They said despite such a damming confession the Punjab Police had failed to act in the matter. "This shows the Punjab Police and the AAP government is bent upon ensuring Chaura goes scot free despite committing a heinous crime".

Expressing dissatisfaction with the bail order, Mr Maheshinder Grewal said "the learned judge should have taken suo moto action in the matter as the entire sequence of events had been covered live and were available in the public realm". Asserting that the SAD did not have any faith in the Punjab Police, Mr Grewal said "we demand the case should be transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in order to expose the conspirators behind the act".

Giving further details, Dr Daljit Cheema said the judicial court while granting bail in the case also mentioned that CCTV camera footage was not supplied to the victim as the same had been submitted to the forensic laboratory in Mohali. "The court also questioned the strange conduct of the Amritsar police in not recording the victim's statement nor seeking sanction under the Arms Act".

The leaders also asserted that the FIR in the case should have been recorded on behalf of the police officer who saved Mr Sukhbir Badal's life instead of on behalf of the police.

(editor@dailyworld.in)