CHANDIGARH: Senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia today asked the Punjab Police and well as the Amritsar Police Commissioner to explain why SP Harpal Randhawa shook hands with Babbar Khalsa International operative Narayan Singh Chaura when the latter conducted a recce of Sri Darbar Sahib on December 3, one day prior to the murder bid on Sukhbir Singh Badal, and why the police force did not take the militant into custody even on the next day despite knowing about his antecedents.
Addressing a press conference here, the senior SAD leader displayed footage from the Sri Darbar Sahib complex to show how SP Harpal Randhawa was on friendly terms with Chaura despite knowing that the latter was a hardcore militant who had more than 30 cases registered against him. “The SP and Chaura are from the same assembly constituency of Dera Baba Nanak”. He also showed how police personnel seemed to be tracking Chaura but not taking any action to apprehend him which had put a question mark on the conduct of the Punjab Police. Mr Majithia said even yesterday SP Randhawa was seen going into the Information Office at Sri Darbar Sahib exactly three minutes before the attack on Mr Badal despite purportedly being in a state of high alert.
Mr Bikram Majithia also condemned Amritsar police commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar of caving in under pressure from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and deliberately calling one media person to his residence and giving a byte to give the impression that the attack on S Sukhbir Badal could have been engineering to create sympathy for the Akali leader. Stating that this was a lie and was done to divert attention from the complete failure of the Amritsar police to protect Mr Badal, the SAD leader said “it would be better if the police commission tells Punjabis why none of the 175 personnel posted at Sri Darbar Sahib tried to even frisk Chaura, let alone apprehend him”.
Majithia also made it clear that the attack was averted by a security personnel posted with the Badal family who was not on duty officially yesterday. “Jasbir Singh, who is posted with Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal, was sent to Amritsar on December 3 to facilitate his visit to Sri Darbar Sahib as he is a Gursikh who does ‘sewa’ in the shrine regularly”. Mr Majithia also asserted that the Amritsar Police was threatening the Shiromani Committee staff for making CCTV footage of the day of the shootout public as it was exposing their failure to avert the attack.
The SAD leader also spoke about the sudden spike in terrorist activities. He said after the recovery of RDX from Ajnala recently, a grenade had been lobbed into the Majitha police station.
He said despite the fact that images of broken window panes and shrapnel damage had appeared in the public realm the Majitha police was foolishly claiming that the blast was actually a case of tire burst when a policeman was filling air into his motorcycle tire manually. “Today the claim of the BKI that it was responsible for the grenade attack has again exposed the Punjab Police”, he added.
The Akali leader also condemned the manner in which a paid hate campaign had been launched against the SAD and Mr Badal in the social media. He said the SAD would file cyber crime complaints with the State police in this regard and would also take recourse to legal action against all those posting distorted and fake images on social media with the sole aim of defaming the SAD.