Harsimrat should quit over NDA govt’s clean chit to Tytler: Phoolka

Monday, 09/11/2015

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BATHINDA: Senior advocate HS Phoolka, on Sunday, demanded the resignation of Union food processing industries minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal in protest against the clean chit given by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, of which the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is a part, to Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

Senior advocate of Delhi high court HS Phoolka during a press conference in Bathinda on Sunday.

Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, Phoolka said that Harsimrat had promised to the people before the Lok Sabha elections that she and her party would work for securing punishment to the guilty of the 1984 antiSikh genocide, especially Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar.

“But, now when she is a Union minister, the NDA government in December 2014 gave a clean chit to Jagdish Tytler discreetly. The CBI filed the closure report in the case against Tytler in the court secretly without informing the victims,” he said.

“An attempt was made to get this clean chit accepted from the court. Somehow, we came to know about this and challenged it in the court and judgment on the petition is reserved. This clean chit was given despite the fact that there was clear evidence against Tytler for influencing the witnesses and hawala transactions. The judge, hearing the case, had asked the government lawyer four times to inform the court what action had been taken regarding the allegation against Jadish Tytler of influencing the witnesses and hawala transactions. But, unfortunately, the government, instead of taking action against Tytler, attempted to justify the clean chit,” said Phoolka.

Phoolka said that clean chits given to Tytler in 2007 and 2009 were rejected by the court and the SAD had raised voice against attempts by the UPA government to give clean chit to Tytler but SAD remained silent this time.

Phoolka said that the missing charge-sheet against Sajjan Kumar, which was signed and kept ready since 1992, has still not been filed in the court. “In May 2013, the SAD and Harsimrat had raised this issue in Parliament and had also met the President for immediately filing this charge-sheet in the court. Now, when the Akali-BJP government is in power and she is a minister for one-and-a-half years, that charge-sheet has still not been filed,” he said.

He announced to hold a cycle rally on November 14 from Bargari in Faridkot district to the office of Harsimrat Kaur in Bathinda, covering about 45 km, against the failure of the SADBJP government to trace out culprits behind incidents of desecration of Guru Granth Sahib in Punjab, killing of two persons in police firing at Behbal Kalan in Faridkot district and to press upon Harsimrat’s resignation.