Manpreet Badal gets bail, blames CM Mann for the FIR

Badal through his counsel, senior advocate R S Cheema with advocates Arshdeep Cheema and Dilraj Singh Bhinder, has submitted in the petition that “the present FIR is one of the links in the chain that the present AAP government in Punjab is trying to fasten around all the people, be it political leaders, people closely associated with them or a common man who in some way are/were connected or close to the previous government. The powerful ruling clique in Punjab has placed victimisation, persecution, and public humiliation of selected targets on top of its agenda.”

It has been alleged in the petition that “the instant FIR is a mala fide exercise of power and has been filed at the behest of the chief minister who intends to settle his personal scores rather than allowing the state agencies to work independently. A case has been created where there was none.”

In the petition, it has been alleged that “the petitioner (Manpreet Singh Badal) is being targeted and entangled in this inquiry/ investigation due to political intervention of the chief minister of Punjab. The CM has declared publicly that he will fix the petitioner in a criminal case. The CM made a press statement that an FIR against the petitioner has already been registered and he will be arrested soon – much before the said FIR was registered…The very fact that the CM had on 31.07.2023 already claimed that the FIR has already been registered clearly shows that the orders to register an FIR after conducting a sham inquiry form the basis of the registration of the FIR.”

Badal was booked in a case (FIR No. 21 dated September 24, 2023) under Section 13 (1) A read with Section 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended Act of 2018), under Sections 420, 409, 467, 468, 471, 120-B of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 66 (C) and 66 (D) of Information Technology Act, 2000, registered at the Vigilance Bureau police station, Bathinda.