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Journalism of Courage
The Vigilance Bureau team today carried out searches at the residence of former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal in his ancestral village here amid sloganeering by Badal supporters. The search, however, remained an exercise in assessment of property and yielded nothing incriminating.
None of the family members was present during the search, except for Badal’s younger brother Gurdas Singh Badal. Former Akali minister Chanranji Lal Garg was also present besides some other leaders of the area.
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Sukhbir’s Delhi house raided |
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New Delhi: WHILE Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh was boasting about his economic achievements to invited mediapersons, sleuths from Punjab vigilance had swooped on the official residence of Akali Dal MP Sukhbir Badal in Delhi with search warrants. The raid is part of a campaign launched by the Punjab government against the Badals, whom, Amarinder Singh has accused of amassing Rs 35,000 crore. A spokesman for Sukhbir said Vigilance officials ‘‘counted chairs and tables, searched the wardrobes but did not videograph the house.’’ ENS |
The team’s arrival was marked with sloganeering by Akali supporters who had been camping there for about two months now, awaiting the VB searches. When the SP, Vigilance, presented the court search warrants, every team member of the Vigilance party was searched before being allowed entry. The team later photographed the whole place also.
Akali supporters also protested against the VB’s move to search the residential portion of the former CM’s brother Gurdas Badal. Akalis present there said since the VB did not possess search warrants for this portion, the same could not be allowed.
The search was eventually allowed by Gurdas Badal himself. Akali workers, meanwhile, raised slogans against the Punjab government and burnt the effigy of Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh.
