Jagir Kaur's resignation to be accepted: Badal

PATIALA: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said he will accept the resignation of senior minister Bibi Jagir Kaur who has been convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment in connection with the abduction of her daughter.

Badal told reporters here that Kaur rang him up yesterday after she was handed down the prison term and informed about her decision to step down as minister.

The Chief Minister said he was yet to receive her resignation and as soon as he gets it he would be forwar it to the Governor.

Badal refused to comment on Kaur's conviction, saying it was a judicial matter.

57-year-old Kaur was convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment by a CBI court in Patiala for conspiring in forcible abortion and abduction in connection with the mysterious death of her teenaged daughter Harpreet Kaur 12 years ago.

The senior Punjab Minister, who was the lone woman member in the 18-member Parkash Singh Badal-led SAD-BJP ministry sworn in earlier this month, was acquitted of murder charge against her.

She has been lodged in Model Jail in Kapurthala district.