Polls on mind, Congress takes in Jammu leader who led public defence of Kathua accused

Among the leaders who joined the Congress Wednesday was Choudhary Lal Singh, who had to step down as minister in the PDP-BJP coalition government of Jammu and Kashmir over his public defence of the accused in the 2018 Kathua gang rape and murder case.

Singh, a two-time Udhampur MP and three-time MLA from Kathua district’s Basohli constituency, had left the Congress to join the BJP in 2014, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, after the Congress denied him a ticket.

But in the wake of the Kathua case row, Singh had left the BJP in 2019, and gone on to set up a ‘Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan’, invoking Dogra pride.

Recently, Singh was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on charges of money laundering, and is currently out on bail. Separately, he is facing a CBI probe over land owned by his family-run R B Educational Trust.

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| Delhi: On joining the Congress party and Article 370, former Jammu and Kashmir Minister Choudhary Lal Singh says, “I will show the roadmap…Article 370 is in the Constitution of India. It is given by the Indian Constitution….” pic.twitter.com/tP3TrgQ9Xv

— ANI (@ANI) <a href=«https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1770436907006050375?ref_src=» https: class="" rel=«nofollow, noopener» target="_blank">March 20, 2024

Sources said that Lal Singh spent several days in Delhi to pursue his case with the Congress, with the party divided over taking him back in view of the controversies surrounding him. Within the Jammu Congress many were apprehensive he might do more damage because of the cloud over him.

But the Congress high command appears to have finally decided in favour of Singh, as he is seen by many