Punjab Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira was arrested by the Punjab Police on Thursday in connection with a 2015 drug case. Dramatic scenes unfolded during the arrest after a family member of Khaira went live on Facebook during the raids.
Khaira, an MLA from Bholath in Kapurtala, is also the chairman of All India Kissan Congress. The drugs case was registered in March 2015 at Jalalabad in Fazilka and nine people were booked in the case and later convicted under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. However, the Supreme Court stayed the trial court proceedings against Khaira who was summoned as an additional accused in the matter in 2017.
In the video, Khaira could be seen arguing with the police team and asking them to show him the arrest warrant. The Bholath legislator could also be seen asking for the identity of the police officers who were part of the raiding team.
The MLA then asks the official about the case. The official is heard telling him that it is the NDPS case to which Khaira said that the case had already been quashed by the Supreme Court.
When Khaira asked the team where he was being taken, a police official told him that he was being taken to Jalalabad in Fazilka. Khaira also seen claimed that he was being apprehended in a fake case and that a "jungle raj" was prevailing in the state. Khaira also protested against the police for entering his bedroom in the morning.
Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring took to Twitter to protest against the arrest. "The recent arrest of @INCPunjab MLA @SukhpalKhaira ji smacks of Political Vendetta, it is an attempt to intimidate the opposition and is a ploy of the @AAPPunjab govt to distract from core issues. We stand strongly with Sukhpal Khaira and will take this fight to its logical conclusion," he posted on X.
The incident is likely to widen the rift between AAP and Congress in Punjab despite both parties being part of the INDIA bloc alliance. The rivalry worsened after AAP announced that it would contest all 13 seats in the Lok Sabha elections. Congress too declared that it would contest all the seats in Punjab.
