Manuke ‘house on rent’ row: Cong’s Sukhpal Khaira protests in Jagraon, demands FIR against AAP MLA

Khaira said, “It is extremely astonishing that now the AAP, which claims to be the party of the common people, is trying to protest an MLA who was illegally living in the house of an NRI. Even as the family has got the house keys back after we raised the issue, police have not registered any FIR till date either against the MLA or that person (Karam Singh) from whom the MLA had taken the house on rent without verifying its actual owner. We met the SSP today and he had no satisfactory reply on why the MLA and others involved in the land grabbing mafia have not been booked till now. We will only intensify this protest and struggle for justice for the old NRI woman till the action is not taken against the MLA. We will do chakka jaam and gherao SSP’s office with thousands of party workers till the NRI woman doesn’t get justice. It were the NRIs who made AAP what it is today and it is a matter of pity that Bhagwant Mann is not shielding his MLAs who are harassing NRIs.”

Khaira added that the party along with Kaur’s family will move the High Court for an independent inquiry into the matter if Ludhiana rural police fails to book the MLA and others. “It is not a random case, it was all a conspiracy which was done with the connivance of the MLA and police. First they created a fake power of attorney, then got fake registry done and then a person bought that house who further gave it on rent to the MLA. Karam Singh, who bought the house and gave on rent to Manuke, was her counting agent during polls. All these persons were known to each other. Had the real owners not landed back, they would have usurped the house brazenly. The family even met Vidhan Sabha speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan but no one listened to them,” Khaira said.

Since the row had erupted around two weeks ago, AAP’s two-time Jagraon MLA Manuke had claimed that she had taken the house on rent from one Karam Singh who had claimed to be the owner of the house, and had started living in it with her family. After the NRI woman’s complaint, an inquiry was initiated by Ludhiana rural police to ascertain the actual owner of the house. Two days ago on June 19, the police registered an FIR against one Ashok Kumar of Jagraon on the complaint of Karam Singh after the latter claimed that Kumar sold him the house in May this year on the basis of “fake power of attorney”.

Khaira said that it was a clear attempt by MLA Manuke to “grab NRI’s property in connivance with land mafia” and had the old woman not flown back to flag the issue, the MLA would have “eventually become the owner of the property.”

On Wednesday, SP (investigation) Harinderpal Singh Parmar along with Karam Singh handed over the keys of the house to Amarjit Kaur. The family however claimed that even though they have got their house keys back, the police have still not booked the MLA and others who prepared the fake power of attorney of their house and then got the registry done. Kuldeep Kaur, daughter-in-law of Amarjit Kaur, who has accompanied her to India, said that even the FIR against Ashok Kumar has not been registered on their complaint but that of Karam Singh despite the fact that they all did this together in connivance with each other.

“It is even more appalling that the FIR against Ashok Kumar has been registered on the complaint of Karam Singh, not the family. It’s like a group committing a robbery together and one robber is being booked on the complaint of the other, instead of the complainant in whose house the robbery was committed. We won’t budge till an FIR is not registered on the family’s complaint against the MLA and others,” Khaira said.

Manuke had distanced herself from the row saying she had vacated the house after knowing that there was a dispute over its ownership.

Meanwhile, leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa also sought legal action against the “AAP MLA and others.”

Bajwa said that the matter did not end with handing over the keys to the NRI woman. “A proper investigation must be conducted and in the meantime, an FIR must be lodged against the AAP MLA and others. Everyone indulged in this corrupt practice must face the consequences. It would be a mockery of the legal system if this case is left without taking it to the logical end,” he said in a statement.

Bajwa said that “Manuke did not vacate the house voluntarily. It happened after constant pressure from the Congress party, farmers’ union, and the general public, that too almost two weeks after the NRI family came to India and filed a police complaint. She intended to grab the property permanently. The NRIs from Punjab had supported AAP earnestly and donated heavy funds to the party. But the “nakli heere” (bogus diamonds) of the “kattar imaandar” (staunch honest) party did not even spare the NRIs. They didn’t even shy away from defrauding those who provided them with almost everything while the AAP was in search of a firm ground in the state,” Bajwa said.

Ludhiana rural SSP Navneet Singh Bains said that probe was still on. “We are awaiting some information from Embassy to ascertain if Amarjit Kaur was in India or Canada when power of attorney was signed in 2005. A complainant can also become accused in the FIR if evidence comes during probe.”