AMRITSAR: The Akali Dal (Amritsar) senior leader, Simranjit Singh Mann has called upon all Opposition parties in Punjab, including the Bharatiya Janata Party, and all conscientious Congress leaders to unite to overthrow the “corrupt and incompetent” Beant Singh government. Addressing a press conference here last week, he expressed confidence that if all political parties took up the issue. Seriously, the Beant Singh government would not last long. Accusing the chief minister of sheltering his grandsons, against whom criminal cases had been registered by the police from time to time, he wondered why no action was being taken against him while the people accused of harboring militants were taken in by the police.
Commenting on the strictures passed by the Punjab and Haryana high court against the Beant Singh government over appointments, Mann said the Chief Minister should resign on moral grounds and if does not do so, the Center should dismiss his government.
Claiming that be authenticated the information that Harkirat Singh, another grandson of Beant Singh was also involved in the kidnapping and molestation of the French woman, Ms. Katia, he demanded a high level independent inquiry into the case.
Describing the identification parade conducted in the Burail jail as eyewash, he alleged that it was purely a Punjab Police show, with the Chandigarh Administration, in whose jurisdiction the jail falls, being completely sidelined in the matter.
He took objection to the presence of the Deputy Inspector General, Birdi, who is in the personal security of the Chief Minister, in the jail premises at Te time of the identification parade.
He asserted that he would not rest in peace till he was able to bring all the culprits in the Katia case to book.
A writ filed by Mann in this connection is slated for hearing in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 23, 1994
