The fissures between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress, both of which are part of the I.N.D.I.A bloc, have deepened in Punjab following the early morning arrest of Sukhpal Singh Khaira, an MLA from the Congress. This move by the state police has drawn heavy criticism against the Bhagwant Mann-led government.
In response to the arrest of their MLA Sukhpal, the Punjab Congress accused the AAP-led state government of engaging in vendetta politics. However, the ruling party defended its actions, citing a “zero-tolerance policy” against drug smugglers as the reason for Khaira’s arrest.
Punjab Police took Khaira into custody from his Chandigarh residence in connection with a 2015 drug case registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. Subsequently, the Congress leader was remanded in two-day police custody.
The arrest sparked protests across several districts in the state, with Congress workers demonstrating against the AAP government. A Congress delegation met with Governor Banwari Lal Purohit at Raj Bhavan in Chandigarh to provide a detailed account of Khaira’s arrest.
Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, the Congress Punjab unit chief, expressed concern about the deteriorating law and order situation in the state. He alleged that Khaira had been unjustly implicated in an eight-year-old case as part of vendetta politics.
Warring hoped that the Governor would take notice of the situation and stressed that they would continue to fight for justice. He said, “We can’t be silent. We will fight till the end…People know what the truth is…We hope that the Governor will take cognizance.”
Meanwhile, Partap Singh Bajwa, the Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly and a Congress leader, called for a kidnapping case to be filed against the police officers who forcibly entered Khaira’s Chandigarh residence. He argued that Punjab Police had no jurisdiction in Chandigarh, a Union Territory.
Bajwa questioned whether the police had obtained the necessary approvals from Chandigarh’s top police officials before arresting Khaira. He urged the Governor to intervene if it was proven that Punjab Police entered without informing the UT police.
Regarding Khaira’s arrest, Bajwa believed that the AAP government, led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, aimed to tarnish the image of the Congress Party, its primary rival in the border state. He announced plans for a major protest in Bathinda against the arrest.
In response to these allegations, Jagtar Singh Dyalpura, a senior spokesperson for the Punjab AAP, dismissed them, asserting that the Mann government had a strict zero-tolerance policy against drug smugglers. Dyalpura claimed that there was sufficient admissible evidence linking Khaira to the drug smuggling case, which had international connections from Pakistan to England.
Dyalpura clarified that the case revolved around Khaira’s alleged involvement with a drug smuggling network dating back to 2015. Initially, the SAD-led government had not pursued charges against him, but as the case approached a verdict, his name began to surface repeatedly.
In 2015, two cases emerged involving a cross-border drug smuggling network in Fazilka, Punjab, and a fake passport racket in Delhi. Several individuals were sentenced in connection with the Fazilka case, and Khaira was accused of sheltering the leader of the drug smuggling racket and receiving financial benefits from drug traffickers.
However, on February 16, 2023, the Supreme Court quashed the summoning order against Khaira in the drugs case, bringing a new twist to the ongoing controversy.
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