BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla on Thursday slammed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over the Punjab police detaining Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira in connection with an old drugs case, questioning what took the Arvind Kejriwal-led party so long to take action.

“The case is of 2015. AAP govt came into power in March 2022. Today we are in September 2023…What was taking AAP and its police and government so long to take action?” the BJP leader questioned while speaking to news agency ANI.

According to Poonawalla, Khaira was detained after the leader of the opposition in Punjab Partap Singh Bajwa claimed that 32 AAP MLAs were in touch with him.

“It seems that this development comes after Congress said they will fight all seats in Punjab…After the Congress and AAP have been fighting over the seven seats in Delhi,” Poonwalla added.

Meanwhile, BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa also hit out at AAP saying, “I remember a statement by Arvind Kejriwal where he said, ‘give me Police and see what I will be doing’, so that he what is being done.”

“If someone is accused of something, he must be summoned first…make him join the investigation, and if he doesn’t answer then arrest him…Punjab police is being misused by the state government. Action is being taken against opposition leaders because they are speaking against the AAP government,” he told ANI.

The Punjab police on Thursday morning raided Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira’s Chandigarh residence and detained him in connection with a 2015 case registered against him under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. While the raids were going on, Khaira went live on Facebook where he can be seen arguing with the police and asking for a warrant.

To this, the police can be heard telling Khaira that he is being arrested in an old NDPS case on the recommendation of a probe conducted by an SIT led by a DIG rank officer and two SSPs. The MLA can be then seen claiming that the case was already quashed by the Supreme Court.

(With inputs from ANI)