Akali Dal accuses AAP MLA of extorting money from sand mafia

The Shiromani Akali Dal on Thursday sought a judicial probe into the alleged attack on AAP’s Ropar MLA Amarjit Singh Sandoa, alleging that he was attacked by the AAP supporters, protesting against “extortion” by him, a charge denied by the AAP.

“The SAD condemns the attack on Sandoa during his visit to a village in Nurpur Bedi area,” said Daljit Singh Cheema, the SAD spokesperson and former minister, in a statement.

He, however, also demanded the judicial probe into the incident.

“But, we demand a judicial inquiry to understand the reason for the attack as a videographic evidence from the site revealed that the attackers were AAP supporters who were protesting against the forced extortions from the AAP legislator,” he said.

Cheema said any incident of violence against an elected representative was condemnable.

“But there should be a judicial inquiry into the incident as there was a visible protest from those indulging in sand mining that the MLA was continuously extorting money from them... these allegations are very serious in nature and should be verified immediately,” said Cheema.

A joint delegation led by SAD MP Sukhdev S Dhindsa & BJP State president Shvet Malik, submitted a memorandum to Pb Governor VP Singh Badnore& enjoined him to direct the State govt to hold a judicial inquiry into the vicious assault on forest officials by the sand mafia in Mohali. pic.twitter.com/W1oWTtcHiD

— Shiromani Akali Dal (@Akali_Dal_) June 21, 2018

AAP co-president Balbir Singh, however, rubbished the accusation by the Akali Dal, claiming that Sandoa had been fighting against illegal mining in his area.

“Our MLA has been fighting against the sand mafia in his constituency and now Akali Dal was spreading canards against him after goons of mining mafia attacked him,” said Balbir Singh.

SAD leader Cheema, however, claimed that videographic evidence had also emerged that the person who led the attack, was an AAP supporter and a close former friend of the AAP MLA. Cheema said the person, who was identified as Ajwinder Singh, had earlier presented Sandoa a garland of currency notes during the 2017 assembly election campaign and also supported his candidature.

“Ajwinder and his supporters are also heard saying they cannot give any more money to the AAP MLA. Ajwinder has also claimed after the incident that he was an AAP volunteer and that Sandoa had been extorting money from him,” Cheema alleged.

Maintaining that only an independent inquiry could lay bare the truth behind the case, he said it needed to be ascertained why a person, who had got overwhelming support from the people of the same village only one year back, was being thrashed in this manner.

Aam Aadmi Party’s MLA from Ropar in Punjab, Amarjit Singh Sandoa was injured after being allegedly attacked today by the mining mafia at village Beinhara near Nurpur Bedi in Ropar district when the legislator had gone to a quarry to verify the reports of illegal sand mining.