Cornered by the Vigilance Bureau (VB) in a disproportionate assets case, Akali Dal MP Sukhbir Badal has challenged Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to an open debate on the issue.Alleging that the chargesheets are ‘‘politically motivated’’, Sukhbir said he can prove the ‘‘frivolity’’ of the charges in a TV debate with Amarinder even before the court takes up the matter. ‘‘Amarinder is close to Sonia Gandhi as he studied with Rajiv Gandhi at the Doon school and this chargesheet is his way to curry favour with his party president,’’ he said.Asking the Punjab government not to waste crores on foreign trips of Vigilance sleuths to find out about his family’s alleged properties abroad, he said: ‘‘Forget about millions, I give him (Capt) 15 days to prove that I own property worth even one lakh abroad,’’ he said, adding: ‘‘If he cannot prove that, Amarinder must quit.’’The MP claimed that his Gurgaon hotel project was originally evaluated at Rs 65 crore. ‘‘Not happy with this, the VB appointed two more evaluators who sat in my office for two hours and revised it to Rs 108 crore. But there is no mention of the bank loans I have taken for this.’’Similarly, he pointed out, his farm at Balasore (Haryana) was evaluated at Rs 1.5 crore and further revised to Rs 3.71 crore. ‘‘This includes the cost of a road which is, in fact, the village road,’’ he claimed. ‘‘The VB also says that I have dumped mud worth Rs 62 lakh in the farmhouse. This is beyond comprehension.Their basic approach was to show all our property as having been raised from ill-gotten wealth.not taking into account my liabilities, loans and agriculture incomes.’’The Akali firebrand doesn’t mince words in virtually threatening the VB officials who have worked on the case. ‘‘I am going to file defamation cases against all the VB officials who had the audacity to say that the Badals own disproportionate wealth to the tune of Rs 4,000 crore while the chargesheet has been filed for just Rs 80 crore,’’ he said.
