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Kunwar Vijay puts own govt in dock over Vinod Ghai’s appointment as AG
Ghai’s appointment was announced on July 26, soon after Anmol Rattan Sidhu resigned as the advocate general. On Thursday, chief minister Bhagwant Mann said Ghai will take over as the AG soon
AMRITSAR: Ruling AAP’s Amritsar north MLA and former IPS officer Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh has cautioned the Bhagwant Maan government against appointing criminal lawyer Vinod Ghai as Punjab next advocate general, saying that he represented the accused in the 2015 Bargari sacrilege and Behbal Kalan firing cases.
Ghai’s appointment was announced on July 26, soon after Anmol Rattan Sidhu resigned as the advocate general. On Thursday, chief minister Bhagwant Mann said Ghai will take over as the AG soon.
In an interview to a Canada-based Punjabi radio channel, Kunwar Vijay said: “When Charanjit Singh Channi became the CM, he appointed APS Deol as the advocate general who was also counsel of the accused in the Bargari sacrilege cases. I opposed it saying that if you appoint the legal counsel of the accused as the AG, justice won’t be delivered.”
“The ability of the person (Ghai), who is being appointed as the AG as per media reports cannot be questioned. He is an expert lawyer. To pursue the Bargari sacrilege and Behbal Kalan firing cases in the high court, we hired lawyers from Delhi during the Congress government. But before that, we also approached him (Ghai) to appear as a counsel on behalf of the state government. I asked someone from my team to contact him and request him to represent the state in the court. However, he replied that he had become the counsel of the accused and cannot pursue the case on behalf of the state government. He has appeared during hearings of writ petitions on behalf of the accused,” said the MLA.
“Since he has appeared in the court on behalf of the accused, he will not pursue the case on behalf of the government. As per legal ethics, he cannot see the government’s record of the case. The opposition parties are also criticising the government’s move,” he said.
“I have not made any statement in this regard as of now, but I have raised this point on the party forum. I have made the government and party aware of my sentiments. If we used to criticise our political opponents, including Congress, during its government, we will also face the criticism,” he added.
When contacted, Kunwar Vijay said the interview was not for publication. But it became viral on social media after being broadcast by the radio channel.
The 1998-batch IPS officer opted for premature retirement from service soon after the Punjab and Haryana high court on April 9 last year quashed the probe report filed by the special investigation team (SIT) led by him in the Kotkapura firing case.
In May this year, he shot off a letter to Bhagwant Mann urging him to pursue the cases of Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan police firing incidents with strong hands. During the recent assembly session, he urged speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan for a discussion on sacrilege issue by extending the session by half-an-hour.
