Chandigarh: Punjab finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Wednesday accused the opposition Congress of “providing protection to drug smugglers”.Referring to a recent video where a man was seen raising slogans from the dais in favour of Charanjit Singh Channi in the presence of Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, who asked him to make a call to the former chief minister, Cheema said, “An FIR had been registered against the man, to whom Raja Warring was asking to make a phone call to Channi, by the Anti-Narcotics Task Force in Mohali in 2025 under the NDPS Act. The case related to seizure of 506 grams of heroin.”Pointing out that the person in question had Channi’s phone number and Warring asked him to save his (Warring’s) phone number as well, the minister said, “This shows that people in the Congress party are involved with drug smugglers and are providing them protection. I do not want to speak much on this, but I have a lot of evidence with me.”On Enforcement Directorate raids, Cheema said, “As far as the ED is concerned, everyone knows how the ED makes false and fabricated cases in the country. Our national convener Arvind Kejriwal and our top leadership were kept in jail for a long time, and ultimately what was the outcome? It was found that a false and fabricated case had been registered.”He further said, “The entire country knows that wherever the BJP cannot reach directly, it reaches through the ED, through the CBI, through the Income Tax department and through SIR. Elections are due in six months. The BJP has started that work. Today, I believe that the Punjab Congress is working as a tool for the BJP, advancing its agenda.”
