Punjab CM slams AAP leader on law & order assertions

Chandigarh, Sep 6 (IANS) Taking the Leader of Opposition to task over his misleading and politically motivated statement on the state's law and order situation, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday slammed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for mutilating facts in a desperate bid to win the 2022 electoral battle, which they can already see slipping away from their hands.

Responding to Harpal Singh Cheema's unfounded and baseless allegations of increasing cases of crime in the state, the Chief Minister expressed shock over the highly irresponsible behaviour of the Leader of Opposition in spreading false information based on some unsubstantiated media report.

"Instead of picking up unverified data from here and there, Cheema could have approached the DGP to get the facts, which are completely different from what he has put in his press release," said Amarinder Singh.

Cheema has once again proved that the AAP ideology is based on lies and fabrications, with all the leaders of Arvind Kejriwal's party having become 'masters of deceit', quipped the Chief Minister, adding that contrary to Cheema's claims, only 38 cases of 'kidnapping for ransom' have been reported in the state since his government took over in March 2017.

Even those 38 cases (0.5 per cent) relating to 'kidnapping for ransom' registered since March 2017 were solved, with the victim's release successfully secured and culprits arrested in each of them, said the Chief Minister, adding that even convictions have been obtained in many instances by fast tracking of criminal trials in serious cases.

This, he said, was a far cry from the 7,138 incidents cited by Cheema, who evidently cannot differentiate between kidnapping for ransom and other cases of abduction or kidnapping.

"But then, given your total lack of experience of governance or administration or policing, this does not come as a surprise," remarked the Chief Minister, taking a dig at Cheema's evident ignorance.

As the Home Minister of the state, Amarinder Singh said he would not mind giving a few quick tips to the Leader of Opposition to save him similar embarrassment over his total ignorance in the future.

Of the remaining 7,138 cases, 87 per cent pertained to elopement and over 10 per cent to clashes between two parties, which usually involve registration of kidnapping offences as people either go missing on their own or elope on their own free will because they are in consensual relationships as major or minor girls, said the Chief Minister.

In many such cases, at the time of the filing of the FIRs, the family is initially not even aware of the cause of their disappearance and therefore files a report of kidnapping or abduction, which Cheema neither knows nor has bothered to find out, he quipped.