DW BUREAU / Chandigarh The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today said the conspiracy hatched by the Congress government to defame the SAD had been exposed with the quashing of the investigation carried out by the State in the Kotkapura police firing case and it has been proved conclusively that the Congress party had misused the issue for petty political gains. In a statement here, SAD Spokesman Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said the Congress government had played with the sentiments of Punjabis by failing to nail the real culprits. "Four years have been wasted in indulging in a political vendetta against the SAD. Crores of public money has been wasted with Rs 5.50 crore being wasted in doling out handsome amounts to private lawyers by the Advocate General. A malicious and biased investigation was also conducted by former SIT head Kunwar Vijay Pratap to implicate senior SAD leaders in the case but despite misusing all resources at its command the Congress government could not prove the involvement of a single SAD leader in any case". Dr Cheema said all this proved that the Congress government was not interested in nabbing the culprits but was all along indulging in conspiracies to defame the SAD as well as its religious institutions. He said earlier during the SAD led government the Congress as well as self seeking organizations aligned with it demanded a CBI inquiry into the case. He said the case was forwarded to the CBI but when the Congress government came into power it fought bitterly to get the case back from the CBI to fulfill its ulterior motives. Speaking about the role of the SAD, Dr Cheema said "we cooperated with the SIT. However the malicious campaign initiated by the Kunwar Vijay Pratap against SAD leaders was exposed when its head disassociated with the former's findings. "Other members of the SIT also disassociated with most of the findings of Kunwar Vijay and did not sign a majority of the jimmnies prepared by the latter". Asserting that the Congress government as well as Kunwar Vijay was facing the consequences of politicizing the issue, Dr Cheema said what the SAD had been maintaining all along for the last four years had been proved correct. "Punjabis will never forgive them for playing with their sentiments and indulging in a fraudulent inquiry. This is the reason why the government is facing a humiliation in the case today", he added. (editor@dailyworld.in)