Behind Moga mayor ouster by AAP, an opium courier to Canada, Rs 5-lakh ‘bribe to settle case’

It has now come to fore that Chani’s response came amid allegations that he took bribe from a woman — an active BJP worker — to settle a case where she and some others were booked by the Moga city police for allegedly attempting to send by courier 450 grams’ opium to Canada.

The FIR was registered at Moga City police station on September 29. The drug, hidden in a sweets box, was packed and sent to RK Couriers, Moga. According to Ravi Kumar, the complainant and owner of courier service, the packet was dropped at his shop but the man who brought it, disappeared. The packet was meant for one Sirtaj Singh Kahlon in Calgary, and the sender was Gulshanjit Kaur Kahlon, a native of Godhewala, Moga. Gulshanjit is Sirtaj’s mother.

Initially, the police filed an FIR against unidentified persons, but later nominated Gulshanjit, Sirtaj’s wife Mandeep Kaur, and their accomplices Manjit Singh and Kuldeep Kaur, for allegedly attempting to courier opium to Canada.

Kahlon family was nominated as accused on October 3 but police did not make any arrests in the case for two months. It was on November 26, a day before Chani was suspended from the party, that police arrested Mandeep Kaur, while Gulshanjit continues to remain “absconding”. Manjit and Kuldeep were arrested on November 30.

Gulshanjit, a former school principal, is an active BJP worker. Sources in both AAP and BJP said that Chani was suspended after Gulshanjit alleged that he had taken Rs 5 lakh from her to “settle the drug case”. Gulshanjit also claimed having videos and photos of Chani “accepting” the bribe money.

In a video statement on his Facebook page, Chani alleged that he has been a “victim of dirty politics”. He alleged that another “BJP worker and former sarpanch Maninder Kaur” connived with Kahlons to “implicate him in the false bribery case” and “he never took any money to protect drug smugglers.”

Chani, known for cremating unclaimed bodies, said that his “25 years of social service was reduced to zero due to the baseless allegations.”

Sources, however, said that as AAP got whiff of the allegations, it suspended Chani and asked him to resign as Moga mayor. Police also swung into action and started making arrests.

Inspector Varun Kumar, SHO Moga City-1 police station, said that they have not received any “complaint” against Chani yet. “We have made three arrests in the opium parcel case. The arrests were delayed as the accused were absconding. Prima facie, Sirtaj’s mother Gulshanjit and wife Mandeep used to send him drugs via courier to Canada. However, this time the courier owner opened the packet and found opium concealed in sweets box,” said the inspector. He said that Mandeep has been sent to judicial custody. A look out circular (LOC) has been issued against Sirtaj, he said.

On Chani’s role, the SHO said: “We have not received any complaint yet”.

Meanwhile, BJP’s Moga district president and former MLA Dr Harjot Kamal said that “Chani was suspended by AAP in a hurried way without a thorough investigation”. “This is how this party (AAP) is, they don’t even stand with their own workers. The action should have been taken only after having concrete evidence. If there is evidence, it should be made public. Gulshanjit had joined BJP but we will never protect any drug peddler,” said Dr Kamal.

AAP’s Moga MLA, Dr Amandeep Kaur Arora, said that “only police or party high command would know how further action will proceed against Chani.”

“All I know is that he was suspended after his photos and videos while purportedly accepting money were submitted to the party high command. I am unaware of further details,” she claimed.

Moga gets officiating Mayor

The AAP Tuesday elevated Parveen Kumar Sharma alias Peena, as Moga’s officiating mayor. Peena was serving as senior deputy mayor. He took charge as Mayor in presence of AAP Moga MLA Amandeep Kaur Arora. The MLA said: “The elections for Moga Municipal Corporation House are due in February next year. Till then Peena has been chosen by the party as officiating Mayor.”