Sukhbir Badal slams AAP; seeks case against Kejriwal for defending MLA Naresh Yadav in sacrilege case
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today demanded that a case be registered against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal for attempting to procure a clean chit for party legislator Naresh Yadav. Yadav was convicted of committing sacrilege against the holy Quran Sharif, and Badal criticised Kejriwal for renominating him as the party’s candidate from Mehrauli in the last Delhi Assembly elections.
Addressing a press conference here, the SAD president also demanded that Cabinet ministers Harpal Cheema and Harjot Bains be dealt with for wilfully defending a sacrilege-accused member of their own party, and that they be removed from the council of ministers immediately.
Badal stated that Naresh Yadav’s conviction demonstrated that sacrilege involving holy scriptures began in the state only after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) emerged in Punjab politics. “We demand a Supreme Court or high court‑monitored probe into the 2015 sacrilege incident and are confident that the AAP’s role in these heinous acts will be unmasked. The SAD will also petition the high court to appoint a special judge to examine all sacrilege cases,” he asserted.
Addressing the matter further, Badal appealed to senior Congress leaders Pargat Singh and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, who had admitted that the former Congress government politicised the sensitive issue of sacrilege and even shielded the accused to secure a clean chit.
“If these two leaders are truly committed Sikhs and stand by the truth as they claim, they should name the specific Congress leaders who protected the culprits behind the sacrilege acts. If they fail to do so, it will be surmised that they too had a hand in these heinous crimes.”
The SAD president stated that it was becoming increasingly clear that sacrilege incidents were being committed to stop SAD and cause it political damage as it achieved record-breaking development. He added that the Malerkotla sacrilege case had exposed the AAP’s involvement in sacrilege-related incidents in Punjab.
“The entire party — from Arvind Kejriwal to senior ministers — tried their best to save Naresh Yadav in the Koran Shareef sacrilege case. Twelve days before Yadav’s conviction, the AAP government pressured the DC to recommend to the Sessions Court, via the public prosecutor, that the complainant had withdrawn the complaint and the case be dismissed. When the court convicted Yadav, Kejriwal renominated him as the party’s candidate from Mehrauli. Can you ever trust such a party?” he asserted.
According to the SAD president, his party’s government had been probing the 2015 sacrilege cases, but it was stopped when the Congress demanded their transfer to the CBI.
“Former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal acted in the interest of justice, but the Congress politicised the issue. When Congress took office in 2017, it transferred those cases back from the CBI but did nothing to catch the culprits, as admitted by Sukhjinder Randhawa. It also indulged in politics by holding a special Vidhan Sabha session on this issue, something which the AAP government has copied recently to deflect attention from its failure rather than assuaging the sentiments of the Sikh community by bringing closure to the cases," he said.
Punjab