AAP Notches Up Poll Humour With 'Channi Awarding Channi' Meme in Sand Mining Case, Cops Say Probe on

With an image of Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi that appears to be straight out of a meme, AAP MLA Raghav Chadha on Sunday hit out at the Congress leader being given a ‘clean chit’ in an illegal sand mining case. Alleging that Channi had influenced the investigation, Chadha said the ‘cardinal rule of any probe that no one should be a judge in his/her own cause’ had went for a toss in the case.

The tweet shared a morphed image of Channi awarding a medal to himself:

Chadha claimed that because the administration was swayed by the CM, an impartial investigation could not be expected. While campaigning for party candidate Dinesh Chadha, he told the media, “It was Channi’s own administration that gave him the clean chit.”

According to Chadha, Channi had already given a clean chit to himself and his nephew, from whom the Enforcement Directorate had recovered Rs 10 crore. He stated that an independent investigation was required in the case, and that if elected, the AAP would conduct investigations into all illegal mining cases. Channi’s nephew Bhupinder Singh ‘Honey’ was earlier sent to 14-day judicial custody in an 2018 illegal sand mining case.

The Congress party, which has put forward Channi as its chief ministerial candidate for the assembly elections, had earlier rejoiced Channi being given a clean chit in the illegal sand mining case from the Ropar district administration.

The development had instigated a war of words between political parties in the fray in Punjab. Previously, the AAP had asked the Punjab Governor to look into an alleged illegal sand mining case in CM Channi’s Chamkaur Sahib constituency. The request was forwarded to the Punjab Police by the Governor.

The Deputy Commissioner has now filed a status report, which has been forwarded to the sand mining enforcement authorities. According to the report, no complaints of illegal sand mining or related records have been discovered.

Responding to the allegations, Channi had called AAP chief and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal a ‘liar’, saying he had tried leveling several allegations against him, but none were proved true. “They complained to the Governor (against me), he ordered an inquiry. Truth prevails,” Channi was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Channi went on to compare Kejriwal and AAP leaders to British rule, claiming that they have come to “loot” Punjab, just as the British did.

However, Rupnagar Deputy Commissioner Sonali Giri told India Today that the investigation is still ongoing and that misinformation about the case is being spread. “We never stated in the status report that the investigation was completed. The investigation is still ongoing, as is the FIR,” she said.

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