No moral or legal ground for resignation: Badal

Chandigarh, Mar 11 (UNI) Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today reiterated his full faith in the judiciary and said he ''respectfully bowed before the orders of the Court'', but as of now, both morally and legally, their was no ground made out for him to resign.

In an apparent reference to the orders of a Ropar Court, ordering framing of charges against him, his son Sukhbir Badal and wife Surinder Kaur in a disproportionate assets case, Mr Badal, however, maintained that the ''case set up against me was false and politically motivated at the behest of Capt Amarinder Singh.'' ''The discerning people of Punjab have already given their verdict regarding the false vendetta pursued by Capt Singh and vindicated me and my family's honour'', he said while talking to mediapersons here.

Giving the details of the background of the case framed against him by the state Vigilance Bureau , Mr Badal claimed that Capt Singh had sent him a letter in September 2001 alleging that he owned properties and assets worth over Rs 3,500 crore. In his reply' he had denied the allegations and had even stated that he would ''willingly gift all the imaginary properties to Capt Singh'', he said.

Mr Badal said in view of the false allegations levelled by Capt Singh, his son, Sukhbir Singh Badal filed a criminal complaint against him in February 2002. But when Capt Singh persisted with his false and defamatory allegations against him, even after assuming office as Chief Minister in 2002, another criminal complaint against Capt Singh was filed in August 2002, he claimed.

Both these criminal complaints are pending and charges had been framed against Capt Singh, the Akali leader said adding added that civil suits for damages was also filed against Capt Singh and these were pending in the court of law.

Mr Badal said in view of these complaints, Capt Singh was left with no alternative but to foist false cases against him and his family to create a 'defence' for himself. The former CM got this done through an obliging complaint and on the bases of inflated and distorted valuation reports, a chargesheet was filed against him and his family members, he added.

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