Akali Dal accuses rebel Manpreet Ayali of irregularities
Shiromani Akali Dal
(SAD) leader Parambans Singh Romana on Wednesday challenged dissident party leader and Dakha legislator Manpreet Singh Ayali to deny the claims that he "got his land excluded from the land pooling scheme", while the adjoining land belonging to poor farmers was notified for acquisition.
Addressing a press conference, Romana said Ayali was "badly compromised" and became "totally silent on the AAP govt's land grabbing scheme whereby it wanted to take forcible possession of 24,000 acres of land in Ludhiana district alone because the govt adjusted him and excluded all land controlled by him from the scheme".
The SAD leader also asked Ayali to disclose what "settlement" he made with the AAP leadership to "secure this reprieve".
Showing documents and Google images, Romana alleged that a chunk of land adjacent to Avanta Enclave owned by the Ayali family and another chunk was left out of the ambit of the land pooling scheme, even as the adjoining land belonging to poor farmers was included in the scheme.
He also alleged that from another chunk of land comprising 20 acres, eight acres belonging to Ayali were left out of the land pooling scheme, even as the remaining 12 acres were notified for acquisition.
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Romana also claimed that the AAP-led govt in Punjab was in possession of documents that proved Ayali's "illegal activities". "The Ayali family developed a colony – Avanta Enclave over 28 acres of land during the course of which it committed several illegalities, including a built-up area of 70% instead of 55% as mandated under law," he said.
The SAD leader said when a scheme was launched to get all illegal colonies that came up before 2018 regularised by paying a nominal fee of Rs 3 crore, Ayali submitted documents to claim that Avanta Greens was constructed in 2015.
Romana showed what he claimed were Google images from 2017, 2018, and 2019 when Avanta Enclave was a barren piece of land and from 2020 when kutcha roads first started being built in the Enclave.
He alleged: "Ayali procured stamps in back date to do agreements with his customers, but this scam was exposed when the vigilance department approached the customers. Now, the AAP govt has details of the entire scam, and CM Bhagwant Mann even referred to this during the Ludhiana West byelections to silence him."
Asking Ayali to prove him wrong, Romana said: "I challenge the leader to show one registry done to sell any one of the 93 plots in Avanta Enclave before 2018."
Romana further claimed: "Details are emerging that Ayali succeeded in getting his land parcels on Hambran road and Kail village excluded from the land pooling scheme. The SAD will release details of the same once the documents are in our possession."
Hitting out at Ayali, Romana said: "The badly compromised people are trying to mislead people by wearing the mask of Panth and are trying to weaken the Panth at the behest of the govt.
It was necessary to unmask them."
Ayali is a part of the five-member committee which has been carrying out an exercise to usher in a revived Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) "on the directions of the Akal Takht".
Ayali, when contacted, denied the allegations, saying that he was even open to a CBI inquiry. "Nearly all of my urban land is coming under the land pooling scheme; 150 acres of my land is coming under the land pooling scheme," Ayali said, denying that any of his land was excluded.
On allegations about a chunk of land adjacent to Avanta Enclave being excluded from the scheme, Ayali said the land being referred to was "reserved to develop commercial sites" in the approved colony and asked "how can that be included" in the land pooling scheme. "We will get this land passed as commercial," said Ayali.
On other alleged irregularities, Ayali said: "They may get a CBI inquiry done. Whatever license I got, I got it after the 2019 byelection.
I contested the byelection against the Congress govt at that time. Would they have left anything to do an inquiry against me? We have been fighting against the govts then and now also."
He said: "Vigilance inquiries were held by the previous Congress govt and now the AAP govt as well, and everything is verified."
On Google images, Ayali said: "Google images have no authenticity as these don't get updated for as long as three years.
Twenty-two departments made visits and submitted reports. Whatever GLADA (Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority) asked, we submitted, and if there is even one document which is against the policy, let it be investigated."
Ayali said he had been vocal against the land pooling policy. "I was the first to speak against the land pooling policy. I participated in a dharna against the policy yesterday, and in Punjab Vidhan Sabha, except me, no one spoke against it."
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Very modern," recalls General Dutta, who was in charge of Rajiv's security during the latter's first six months as Prime Minister. He also recollected the late PM's love for driving and automobiles and of how he would stay awake till 3-4 am immersed in his work. "I believe Rajiv would have come back to power in that election if he had not been assassinated," he stresses. General Dutta, who lamented the withdrawal of the Special Protection Group cover for Rajiv after he stepped down as PM, went on to reveal how the team that carried out the hunt for the assassins was assembled. Six ranking officers, eight junior commissioned officers and 40 commandos, who went around in muftis and could melt into the crowd without attracting attention, were selected by him. General Dutta had told the then Home Minister SB Chavan that his team's aim was to capture Sivarasan alive. "But if the life of any of my commandos came under threat, I told him we will take the LTTE men out." 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Broke the backbone of the LTTE These raids saw us "slowly and gradually uprooting the entire LTTE network in Tamil Nadu", says General Dutta. One of the most interesting discoveries he recounts stumbling upon was of a LTTE grenade factory in Coimbatore. "This only happened because three boys on a motorcycle were intercepted by a traffic policeman. When they were caught, the boys tried to bribe that policeman with a large amount of money. This immediately aroused his suspicion. Why was he being offered so much? So, he informed the police, who found that these boys are from the LTTE. "Soon, the cops informed the Special Investigation Team who relayed the information to us. And you will be surprised. They were actually assembling hand grenades from parts manufactured in different factories. "Somewhere a trigger was being made. Somewhere the plastic body was being made. Somewhere the spring was being made. Somewhere the cap was being made. "No factory had the complete picture. They were each told these were vehicle spare parts. But when the whole thing was assembled, it turned into a lethal hand grenade. "That was the kind of ingenuity the LTTE had. They were using our infrastructure in Tamil Nadu, various small factories here and there and making stuff that served the military needs of the LTTE without any of these factories being the wiser of it," General Dutta remembers. He admits the LTTE also had a lot of ground-level sympathy. "There was definitely a lot of sympathy for the LTTE cadres because all said and done Sri Lanka was ill-treating Tamils there. They had a genuine cause for fighting for their rights," he observes. On the trail of Sivarasan and the final standoff The first major safe house that Sivarasan fled from was at 158, Muthamamil Nagar, Kodungaiyur in Chennai. After that he used many LTTE safe houses in Tamil Nadu. "Most of these safe houses were in newly-developed colonies and so people hadn't settled down there. It helped the LTTE get these houses at cheaper rates and also let their man stay under the radar," says General Dutta. Finally, when Sivarasan felt the hunt in Tamil Nadu was too hot to handle, he got into a tanker that was to take him to his final hideouts. "He was hidden in a capsule slipped into the tanker" and that was how the 'one-eyed jack' reached Bengaluru after travelling hundreds of kilometres. Finally, at the 'safe house' in Konanakunte outside Bengaluru a "milk vendor chanced upon Sivarasan" and informed the Karnataka police, who immediately reached the house and surrounded it. The commandos arrived at the house on August 19, but a 36-hour wait was to ensue. The reason cited was Colonel Dutta's absence. He had gone to Delhi for two days to oversee operations elsewhere. But as soon as he was informed by Captain Raveendran from his team that Sivarasan had been located, Colonel Dutta asked his director general to give them the go ahead for the storming of the safe house. Instead, he was told to get into a BSF Avro aircraft at the Palam airport from where he flew to Gwalior to pick up the cyanide antidote and reached Bengaluru at around 4:20-4:30 pm the next morning. As soon as he was at Konanakunte, Colonel Dutta ordered his team to storm the house. "It was a single-storey house with a roof at the top. From a neighbouring house, we placed a ladder to go over the roof. One entry from the front, one from the rear. We blew open the doors and entered. Sivarasan and the others were lying dead. Sivarasan had not only consumed cyanide, but also had a bullet in his head. He was not in disguise when we found him dead. So that is where the hunt for him came to an end," General Dutta recalls.
