Punjab: CBI raids houses of 2 SKM leaders in connection to multi-crore FCI scam

The CBI lodged an FIR in this connection last month.

At Harinder Singh’s house, CBI officials carried out the raid from Tuesday morning till evening and took away a few documents as well. His father Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, who had formed the BKU (Lakhowal), was the Punjab Mandi board chairman during the SAD-BJP government regime of 2012-2017. Ajmer is inactive these days owing to health issues. Both BKU (Lakhowal) and Indian Farmers Association are constituent members of the SKM.

“Lakhowal is a wheat-growing farmer and has no rice mill… Behru is a small farmer who lives in a Patiala village. Hence we are surprised… on what parameters has the CBI targeted them? We fully condemn these search operations,” said Dr Darshan Pal, a member of the SKM’s coordination committee.

He further said, “We will protest over our pending demands outside Parliament on March 20, where we will highlight this issue as well… the government is intentionally targeting SKM leaders to weaken our unity… However, we will fight back more aggressively.”

Sources revealed that Ajmer Singh’s petrol pump in Samrala, his ancestral house in Lakhowal village (both places in Ludhiana), and his son Harinder Singh’s Mohali-based house were raided. They added that Harinder Singh wasn’t present at the house when the CBI teams arrived.

Meanwhile, Harinder Singh has claimed that he was being targeted for showing his support for Bandi Singh Morcha in Mohali. He added that he will continue to fight for farmer rights and human rights, and will not get intimidated by such actions.