India News | AAP Govt Targeting Me Ever Since I Returned, Preparing Grounds to Arrest Me: Former Punjab CM Channi
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Saturday trained his guns on the state government, claiming that the AAP dispensation had been after him ever since he returned from abroad and was preparing grounds to arrest him.
Chandigarh, Dec 31 (PTI) Former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Saturday trained his guns on the state government, claiming that the AAP dispensation had been after him ever since he returned from abroad and was preparing grounds to arrest him.
Channi returned to Punjab recently after spending a few months in the US and Canada.
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Speaking to reporters here, Channi rubbished as baseless allegations that a Bathinda resident had approached the Vigilance Bureau with a complaint seeking a probe into the Daastan-e-Shahadat "scam" when he was chief minister.
The complainant alleged that bills for last year's Dastan-e-Shahadat programme were inflated and the additional money diverted for Channi's son's wedding.
"It is a conspiracy to defame me, nothing else... baseless allegations are being levelled," said Channi.
He said his son's wedding took place in October 2021 -- a month before the Dastan-e-Shahadat event in November.
"At the time of my son's wedding, there was not even any talk of the government function," he said.
On a question on reports that the state government had to foot a three-month bill of Rs 60 lakh on food orders from the chief minister's residence, Channi said, "I never consume alcohol, I am a vegetarian and eat simple food".
If anyone ate food in the "CM's house", it was the "people of Punjab" as scores of visitors came to meet him, Channi added.
Hitting out at the AAP dispensation, the Congress leader said, "From the day I landed, the Vigilance (Bureau) has started preparing grounds on how to arrest me. When I was on my way to (slain singer Sidhu) Moosewala's house (in Mansa recently), I got a telephone call and they said I would be arrested if I went there.
"My bank accounts, land details, what all I have -- they are verifying everything. The Vigilance (Bureau) is doing all types of inquiries," he said.
Channi said was not against fair questioning in any matter and added that he was being targeted due to "political vendetta".
He said the Bhagwant Mann government had nothing else to do and they could only indulge in vendetta.
Instead of trying to make a corruption-free Punjab, the AAP regime is trying to make a Congress-mukt (Congress-free) Punjab, Channi alleged.
"Now, (civic) elections are coming up. You must have seen that they are also targeting Hindu leaders of the Congress -- be it in Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar.
"You have seen how they targeted (Congress leader and former minister Bharat Bhushan) Ashu and arrested him. They are trying to do the same with (another Congress leader) OP Soni," he said.
Asserting that he had done no wrong and was open to any inquiry, Channi, however, felt that he was being targeted as part of a "conspiracy".
He said he had been chief minister for just three months while no one had asked any questions of those who had served multiple terms and longer durations.
"I was the chief minister for three months. So many chief ministers came during the past 70 years, some remained for 15 years -- but no one asked them anything...
"Did all the loot take place in three months? It is a very big conspiracy," he said.
In September, Mann targeted his predecessor and asked the Congress where he had "run away" after losing the assembly elections.
Mann had then alleged that the former chief minister took many decisions towards the end of his tenure and many of those were "anti-people".
The incumbent chief minister had said that he learnt about those files after the formation of the AAP government.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)