Chandigarh: Leader of Opposition Sukhpal Singh Khaira demanded the cancellation of FIR registered against Lok Insaaf Part MLA Simarjeet Singh Bains under trespassing charges. He said Bains has exposed Rs 2000 spurious milk scam and under political pressure police booked him.
Khaira writes
It was shocking for the people of Punjab to learn that the Ludhiana police under political instructions has registered a mischievously false and frivolous FIR against Simarjeet Singh Bains MLA, a whistleblower and an avid campaigner against corruption.
As we are aware, Simarjeet Singh Bains MLA accompanied by print and electronic media had exposed a mega scam of Rs. 200 crore, pertaining to spurious milk production by Verka milk plant of Ludhiana. Before visiting the milk plant Mr. Bains and his team had collected milk samples and had them tested in various laboratories, including those authorized by Verka Milk plant.
Needless to mention, there is massive hue and cry amongst the people about the sale of spurious milk in Punjab, causing widespread diseases.
When Mr. Bains countered the milk plant authorities with spurious milk samples supported with documented proofs, the staff at the Verka milk plant were speechless and dumbfounded and had no satisfactory answer, in the presence of media.
It is pertinent to mention here, that spurious milk is being supplied to the people of Punjab and they are being cheated of Rs. 5 to Rs. 6.5 per liter. If multiplied with 11 lac milk packets that are produced everyday, it means the people are being cheated to the tune of Rs. 55-60 lac per day and Rs. 200 crore annually.
Unfortunately instead of initiating stringent action against the corrupt authorities of Verka milk plant for causing loss to the public exchequer and spreading disease amongst the people, the Ludhiana police registered the said maliciously false case of trespass, obstruction in duty by government servants etc., against Bains and others. This vindictive action of the police can rightly be termed as “shooting the messenger”.
We are also appalled how sections of trespass can be slapped against a MLA? MLA is a lawmaker and a public man, if a public man cannot enter the premises of a government office also a public place, then what is the role of MLA? On one hand the government accords higher status to MLA than even the Chief Secretary of the state according to protocol but if a MLA inspects a public office and that too to expose corruption, he is booked in a trespass and obstruction in discharge of duty case.
This vindictive action of the Ludhiana police conveys a message that your government is all out to protect and shield corrupt officers looting the state with impunity. Such erroneous actions will further add to the already blatantly corrupt government machinery.
We wish to remind you that Congress has been voted to power on its promise of “zero tolerance to corruption” but is this your way of implementing vital poll promise by falsely booking Bains who is consistently fighting corruption?
On the contrary, we demand that you should order a CBI probe or a judicial inquiry against such large scale corruption in the Verka milk plants, that is endangering the health of citizens, besides looting the public exchequer of Punjab.
We also demand that the said maliciously false, frivolous and concocted case registered against Bains and others under a well planned political vendetta conspiracy, be cancelled without any further delay and those who registered the FIR with the aim to intimidate and gag the voice of whistleblowers be booked under section 182 of the IPC, for making a fake complaint.