Harsimrat hopes for a repeat in Bathinda CHANDIGARH: A day after Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh said in the legislative assembly that the probe into the October 2015 Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan police firing cases “is going to go very high”, former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Thursday offered himself for arrest. He also said that the political witch-hunt should be stopped. Two Sikh youths who had been protesting against the sacrilege of “birs” (copies) of Guru Granth Sahib had died in the Behbal Kalan police firing.In a press conference at SAD headquarters here, Badal asked Amarinder to stop the high drama being enacted in the name of a probe and tell him where he should come and offer himself for arrest. “Even before any inquiry was instituted into these incidents, Captain Amarinder Singh, PPCC chief Sunil Jakhar and senior party and cabinet colleagues had been pronouncing me guilty. Everyone knows how fair a probe can be after that,” said Badal.He added that though he was unwell and had proceeded on leave from the legislative assembly after informing the Speaker, he had rushed back from his village to Chandigarh on Thursday morning when he learnt that the state counsel had named him as guilty and that the chief minister had reiterated his threat against him. The SAD patron further added that after his arrival in Chandigarh, he rang up the state DGP, Dinkar Gupta, and told him that he was available in Chandigarh on Thursday for arrest and could wait if they needed time. He further informed the DGP, “Otherwise, I am available for arrest whenever, wherever you want me.”Attacking the Amarinder-led Congress government, a visibly upset Badal said, “There is no point in targeting and playing havoc with and harassing the whole state administration. All this is being done only to create a political climate to justify the final goal of feeding their lust for vendetta and hatred for me, which can be satisfied only by putting me behind bars.”The former five-time chief minister further added that the real motive behind all this exercise truly was to weaken the SAD and Sikh institutions, something which the Congress leaders had been conspiring unsuccessfully to do ever since independence.With barely few months left for Lok Sabha polls, Union food processing industry minister, Harsimrat Kaur Badal seems to have drawn up her own voter connect strategy through distribution of sewing machines in Bathinda from where she is the incumbent MP.

Stay updated with all the Chandigarh Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.