Aam Aadmi Party Delhi MLA Naresh Yadav was questioned for nearly five hours by the Punjab police in Patiala on Tuesday, in connection with an incident of sacrilege in Malerkotla town on June 24.
Sangrur SSP Pritpal Singh Thind told reporters that several questions were posed to Mr. Yadav. He answered many, but he was unable to answer a few.
“We will again ask Mr. Yadav to appear for questioning, if required. We questioned him on his call shared with the accused, Vijay Kumar, besides other questions,” said Mr. Thind.
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Refuting the allegation of political pressure, Mr. Thind said the police would conduct a fair and impartial probe.
Mr. Yadav has been booked under different sections of the IPC including 295 (injury or defiling place of worship with an intent to insult the religion of any class) besides sections 109 and 153A.
It was after Mr. Kumar had claimed that he committed the act at the behest of Mr. Yadav, the Punjab police booked Mr. Yadav and summoned him.
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“I’m innocent. I have nothing to hide and therefore I joined the investigation. If asked to come again I’ll come,” Mr. Yadav told reporters, after appearing before the police at the Crime Investigation Agency office in Patiala.
AAP leader and Punjab affairs in-charge Sanjay Singh said: “It is a political conspiracy to defame the AAP. The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is behind the sacrilege incident.”
VAT refund
Meanwhile, interacting with traders and industrialists in Ludhiana, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal assured them that his party would attempt to clear the backlog of Value Added Tax (VAT) refund if voted to power.
“We would formulate a policy within one month in Punjab so that VAT could be refunded to the traders and the industrialists on time and its backlog did not pile up,” he said.
Mr. Kejriwal said that after coming to power, the AAP would probe the various businesses run by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his family members.
“We are also victims of Mr. Badal’s high-handedness as he has implicated Mr. Yadav in a false case of desecration,” he said.
Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh, meanwhile, asked the AAP why it was ‘scared’ of a probe into the desecration incident.
“If AAP believes that its MLA is really innocent why does it not trust the courts?” Capt. Singh said in Chandigarh.