The Punjab Police arrested Bholath MLA and Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira from his Sector 5 residence in Chandigarh early on Thursday morning.
Officials from the Jalalabad police station raided Khaira’s Sector 5 residence, in connection with an old case registered against him under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Khaira went live on Facebook during the raids, wherein he is seen arguing with the police. In the video, he can be heard asking the police for a warrant and inquiring about the reason for his arrest.
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He also asked the police personnel to identify themselves as some of them were in plain clothes. A police personnel told him that he was DSP Jalalabad Acchru Ram Sharma.
The Congress MLA is also heard asking about the case. In the Facebook live, Sharma 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.
Khaira is also seen protesting against the police for entering his bedroom in the morning.
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He was taken into custody amid resistance from his family. Before getting into the police van, Khaira can be seen smiling, as he gives a message with an assertion of his innocence.
The Shiromani Akali Dal took to social media to condemn the arrest, tagging it as a “political vendetta”.
“Political differences aside – Shiromani Akali Dal Amritsar condemns the arrest borne out of the witch hunt and political vendetta against Bholath MLA and a very respected Sukhpal Jhaira Ji, a fierce critic of Bhagwant Mann and AAP-led Punjab government. What promised to be a ‘badlav’ is turning out to be a horror show,” Shiromani Akali Dal’s post on X (formerly Twitter) read.
The arrest comes amidst a political rift between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress, members of the Opposition bloc INDIA, in the state. Tensions mounted between the two parties after AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal announced that his party would contest all 13 seats in the Lok Sabha elections. Soon after, Congress also declared that it would contest all the seats in Punjab.