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Chandigarh, July 21 – The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today asked AAP Convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to tell Punjabis why he was not taking action against Amarjit Singh Sandoa even after charges had been framed against the Ropar AAP legislator in a woman molestation case.
In a statement here, former minister and SAD spokesman Maheshinder Singh Grewal said Kejriwal had made the issue of woman safety a major poll plank in the 2017 assembly elections. “Now when his own legislator has been hauled up by the Rupnagar chief judicial magistrate and charges have been framed against him under several criminal acts including intimidating, insulting, assaulting and outraging the modesty of a woman, Kejriwal is maintaining a stoic silence. By doing so he is showing how much respect he has for the victim who is a former AAP worker and daughter of an army officer in particular and Punjabi women in general”.
Asking Kejriwal to take action against the AAP mla before he is put behind bars, the Akali leader said earlier even after Special Investigating Team (SIT) found Sandoa guilty of beating up and outraging the modesty of his former landlady when she approached him to pay rent due to her, Kejriwal did not taken any action against his party leader. “Now after submission of the challan against Sandoa the chief judicial magistrate has framed charges against him. What is Kejriwal’s excuse for not taking action against Sandoa now?” Mr Grewal asked.
Asserting that this was not the first time that the AAP Convener had displayed double standards and tried to deceive Punjabis by saying one thing and practicing the other, Mr Grewal said Kejriwal had refused to take action against leader of opposition Sukhpal Khaira when the latter was summoned as an accused in a trans-border drug and arms smuggling case by a Fazilka court. He said Kejriwal was fond of asserting that AAP had zero tolerance for drugs. “The party as well as Kejriwal is however happily tolerating Khaira months after he was termed as king pin of the drug racket after the inter-connectivity of his calls with the convicts, who were awarded 20 years rigorous imprisonment, was established beyond doubt. The convicts include Gurdev Singh, a close associate, whom Khaira nominated as Chairman of Dhilwan market committee”, he added.
Asking Kejriwal to come clean even now, Mr Grewal said if the AAP Convener was really serious about woman safety he should remove Sandoa from the party and take his resignation as a legislator. “Kejriwal should not hide behind the law now. Charges have been framed against his mla in a case of moral turpitude. The same mla has earlier been accused of being hand in glove with the sand mafia. Morality and ethics demand that Kejriwal take action against him immediately”, Mr Grewal added.
