NEW DELHI, September 2- Delhi Akali chief Paramjit Singh Sarna has demanded that Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) president Harmeet Singh Kalka step down immediately following the registration of an FIR in Phillaur, Punjab, naming two members of his committee in an alleged fraud involving an industrial plot in New Delhi.
The FIR, registered at Phillaur police station as FIR No. 0253, Invokes Sections 316(2), 318(4) and 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The complaint and police inquiry record allegations of fraud relating to an industrial plot in New Delhi against, among others, DSGMC members Bhupinder Singh Ginny and Manjeet Singh Aulakh.
Sarna said the FIR had raised serious questions about the credibility of the DSGMC leadership and demanded that Kalka accept responsibility and resign.
“When members of the DSGMC leadership are named in a criminal case involving allegations of fraud over property in Delhi, the president cannot hide behind technicalities. Harmeet Singh Kalka should step down and answer the sangat,” Sarna said.
He alleged that the matter was particularly serious because Manjinder Singh Sirsa, a Delhi government minister, continues to exercise enormous influence over the DSGMC and is effectively the de facto power behind Kalka, pulling the strings of the gurdwara body from outside.
“The question is not merely who signed what. The real question is who is exercising power, who is directing decisions and who ultimately takes responsibility when such allegations surface,” Sarna said.
Sarna further alleged that Sirsa’s name appears in the FIR on page 6 in Gurmukhi. He said the FIR has been registered against DSGMC members Bhupinder Singh Ginny, Manjeet Singh Aulakh and others, while the legal opinion obtained by Punjab Police in connection with the matter is recorded on pages 11 to 13 of the FIR.
According to the allegations cited by Sarna, the case concerns a 3,200-square-yard DDA industrial plot at A-19, Wazirpur Industrial Area, and New Delhi. The allegation is that 76.81 lakh was officially taken on the promise of facilitating the allotment or securing of the plot at a substantially lower price. Sarna alleged that the amount involved in the alleged unofficial transaction was several crores of rupees and was purportedly paid by a retired Punjab Police officer who was allegedly lured by the promise of securing the property.Sarna said the allegations raised an equally serious political question for the BJP.
“The BJP leadership in Delhi must explain why it has a person facing such serious allegations and controversies serving as a minister in the Delhi government. When allegations of this nature keep surfacing around a minister, it is not only the individual’s credibility that is at stake. The image of the BJP itself is being stained,” Sarna said.
He said the BJP could not claim that controversies surrounding its ministers were merely personal matters when those ministers continued to hold public office and exercise influence over important community institutions.
The demand comes amid another controversy surrounding Sirsa the CBI’s FIR into alleged serious irregularities in the allocation of rice under the Open Market Sale Scheme. The opposition in the Delhi Assembly has alleged that 50,645 metric tonnes of rice meant for Delhi’s poor had been diverted and sought a CBI investigation into Sirsa’s role. News reports say the CBI FIR refers to correspondence concerning the allocation of 31,000 metric tonnes of rice to a Haryana-based company without an e-auction.
Sarna said the rice controversy could not be viewed in isolation from what he described as a longer history of allegations surrounding Sirsa.
“The BJP must decide whether it wants to protect an individual or protect the credibility of the government and the party. Ministers are expected to uphold public trust, not become a source of repeated controversy,” Sarna said.
