Chandigarh : In an early morning swoop, Punjab police on arrested suiting Punjab Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira on Thursday from his Chandigarh residence in an old drugs case.
Khaira had been booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in 2015 at police station Jalalabad in Fazilka district of Punjab.
As the police raided his residence, Khaira went live on Facebook alleging his arrest was politically motivated. He is seen raising slogans denouncing Punjab police in a video clip shared on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
The firebrand leader had been elected as the ruling AAP MLA from Bholath assembly constituency in 2017. He was the Leader of Opposition (LoP). But he left the party due to irreconcilable differences with the AAP national leadership.
He had rejoined the Congress and survived the AAP electoral tsunami in 2022 assembly elections and got re-elected as the Congress candidate from his home constituency Bholath. He has since been a vocal critic of the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government in Punjab.
In past too, Khaira had expressed apprehensions that he might be arrested.
His arrest has been widely condemned. Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief spokesperson Dr Daljit Singh Cheema has termed his arrest as an act of political vendetta citing quashing of summons against Khaira by the Supreme Court.
