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Your earnest inaction subverting justice: Navjot Sidhu to Punjab advocate general Deol
Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu on Sunday hit out at advocate general APS Deo saying his earnest inaction was clearly subverting justice in sacrilege and drugs cases
Rejecting the charge of derailing the government’s efforts to ensure justice in drugs and sacrilege cases and spreading misinformation for political advantage, Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu on Sunday hit out at advocate general APS Deol, alleging that his earnest inaction was clearly subverting justice rather than ensuring it.
Sidhu asked Deol which interest (vested or otherwise) he was acting for when he appeared for the main conspirators and procured blanked bail for them. “Are you acting at the behest of those who appointed you in this constitutional office and fulfilling their political gains? Did you advise the government to challenge the blanket bail order procured by you or any other adverse order in sacrilege cases in Supreme Court?” he said in a dozen tweets addressed to AG in which he also raised questions over the actions of his party’s government in the state.
The Congress leader further said, “You appeared for the accused, now representing the State and very soon you will seek elevation as a judge so that you can decide this case. Being the highest law officer, your focus is on politics and political gains (sic)”.
Sidhu’s diatribe came a day after Deol, in a statement, accused him of obstructing the functioning of the state government and AG’s office. There has been a standoff between Sidhu and chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi, who took over the reins of the Congress government in Punjab in September 2021 following his predecessor Capt Amarinder Singh’s resignation, over Deol’s appointment. As a lawyer, Deol had represented former director general of police (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini, who headed the state police at the time of sacrilege incident and police firing on protesters six years ago. The PPCC chief has been opposed to Deol’s appointment for this reason and has been pressing for his immediate removal. Sidhu had resigned from his post on September 28 and later indicated the AG’s was part of the reason he quit. He, while withdrawing his resignation as Punjab Congress president on Friday, put Deol’s removal as a precondition for resuming his duties.
Telling the AG that “justice is blind but people of Punjab are not”, Sidhu, in his tweets, also said the Congress came to power with a promise to give justice in sacrilege cases, in which he (Deol) appeared before the high court for accused persons and made serious allegations against the state government. “You specifically prayed for transferring the investigation to CBI as you were afraid of their false implication in sacrilege cases on accounts of malafide, malice and ulterior motives on the part of political party in power in the state of Punjab,” he posted.
The PPCC chief said the AG was now representing the same government of same political party in power and accusing him of spreading misinformation, whereas, he (Sidhu) was fighting for justice in sacrilege cases. In the drugs case, he asked Deol what was unethical by proceeding against the accused persons on the basis of STF report. “Did Hon’ble High Court stop you? High Court itself gave a copy of the STF report to our government for consideration and you are shielding the inaction of the government under the guise of your own unknown ethics,” he asked in another tweet. He also asked Deol to leave politics to politicians and focus on his personal conscience, integrity and professional ethics which his job required.
