No political vendetta in arrest of Congress MLA Khaira: AAP

Under fire from the Congress over the arrest of MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira, AAP leader Malvinder Singh Kang Thursday rejected the allegation of political vendetta, claiming that the action against the Bholath MLA was taken according to law.

He further claimed that Khaira was arrested by the Punjab Police after a special investigation team (SIT) found new facts in the drug case.

Khaira was arrested by the Punjab Police in connection with a 2015 drugs case on Thursday morning from his Chandigarh residence.

The Congress leaders called the police action against the Bholath MLA as political vendetta.

Speaking to reporters here, Kang said, "There is no political vendetta in this matter. We are going as per rule of law.'

'If we wanted any political revenge, we have government in Punjab for more than a year and half now, he would have been arrested earlier,' he said.

He said the SIT, which was formed in April 2023, carried out an investigation in the matter and discovered some new facts in the case.

'It came to fore that Khaira was found to be involved in drug smuggling and that is why he was arrested by Punjab Police today,' Kang said.

The chief spokesperson of the Punjab unit of the Aam Aadmi Party said the party-led government has zero tolerance for drugs.

Anyone involved in drug trafficking, no matter how influential he is, will not be spared, he said.

The AAP leader claimed that in 2022, the Supreme Court, while hearing the matter, had said that the Punjab Police can reinvestigate the case.

He alleged that Gurdev Singh, who was one of the convicts in the 2015 drug case, was very close to Khaira.

Kang said that even the Enforcement Directorate had arrested Khaira in a money laundering case linked to the 2015 drug matter.

Kang said that the FIR was registered against Khaira in 2015 during the SAD-BJP regime in connection with the drug case.

The AAP leader asked the opposition parties that they should not oppose the arrest of Khaira if they want to wipe out the drug menace from the state.

If any party opposes this, it will be clear that they support drug smugglers, he stated.

The drugs case was registered in March 2015 at Jalalabad in Fazilka. Nine people including Gurdev Singh, who was allegedly a close aide of Khaira, were booked in the case and later convicted under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

Police had recovered two kg of heroin, 24 gold biscuits, one country-made pistol, a .315-bore pistol and two Pakistani SIM cards from them.

Khaira's name cropped up later during the police probe.

However, in 2017, the Supreme Court stayed the trial court proceedings against Khaira who was summoned as an additional accused in the matter. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in 2021 on the charge of money laundering linked to the 2015 drug case. He was granted bail in 2022.

In February 2023, the apex court quashed the summoning order of the Fazilka court against Khaira in the 2015 drugs case.