Chandigarh: The Bhagwant Mann government’s decision to recover lakhs of rupees spent on litigation costs to keep gangster-turned-politician Muktsar Ansari in a Punjab jail from former Congress chief minister Amarinder Singh and ex-jails minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa has kicked up a massive political storm.
Ansari was lodged at Rupnagar central jail from January 2019 to April 2021 in connection with an extortion case lodged in Mohali.
In a tweet Sunday, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann announced that his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government would recover the litigation cost for keeping Ansari, a five-time MLA who reportedly ran a crime syndicate in Ghazipur-Mau-Varanasi region, in the Punjab jail from the two leaders.
The tweet came two months after Mann said that he had returned the file to make the payment of Rs 55 lakh sent to him for clearance.
For context, the Uttar Pradesh government had approached the Supreme Court in September 2021 seeking Ansari’s transfer to the state. Punjab had opposed the transfer.
“The fee spent on fighting a legal battle in order to keep their friend UP’s gangster (Mukhtar) Ansari in Punjab’s jail will not be paid from the Punjab government’s treasury. This amount will be recovered from Amarinder Singh and his jails minister Sukhjinder Randhawa. In case they do not pay this amount their pension and other government facilities will be withdrawn,” the chief minister said in Punjabi.
UP ਦੇ ਗੈਂਗਸਟਰ ਅੰਸਾਰੀ ਨੂੰ ਆਪਣੀ ਦੋਸਤੀ ਨਿਭਾਉਣ ਲਈ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੀ ਜੇਲ੍ਹ ਚ ਰੱਖਣ ਅਤੇ ਉਸਦਾ ਕੇਸ ਸੁਪਰੀਮ ਕੋਰਟ ਚ ਲੜਣ ਦੀ ਫੀਸ 55 ਲੱਖ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੇ ਖ਼ਜ਼ਾਨੇ ਚੋਂ ਨਹੀ ਦਿੱਤੇ ਜਾਣਗੇ .. ਉਸ ਵੇਲੇ ਦੇ ਗ੍ਰਹਿ ਮੰਤਰੀ ਕੈਪਟਨ ਅਮਰਿੰਦਰ ਸਿੰਘ ਅਤੇ ਜੇਲ੍ਹ ਮੰਤਰੀ ਸੁਖਜਿੰਦਰ ਸਿੰਘ ਰੰਧਾਵਾ ਤੋਂ ਇਹ ਪੈਸਾ ਵਸੂਲਿਆ ਜਾਵੇਗਾ..ਪੈਸਾ ਨਾ ਦੇਣ ਦੀ ਸੂਰਤ…
— Bhagwant Mann (@BhagwantMann) July 2, 2023
Both Amarinder, a former Congress leader who’s currently in the Bharatiya Janata Party, and Randhawa have reacted sharply to the development, with the former calling Mann’s statement “foolish”. In a tweet he posted hours after Mann’s, Amarinder advised the chief minister to “first learn the process of law & investigation”.
Mr @BhagwantMann first learn the process of law & investigation before issuing such foolish statements that only expose your ignorance about the process of governance.
Ansari was brought to Punjab & detained here under due process of law for the investigation, so where does the… https://t.co/ill1tbaUEs
— Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) July 2, 2023
Addressing a press conference Monday, Randhawa dared the chief minister to send him a notice.
“On one hand, he is saying that the amount due on account of the legal fees has not been paid. So, where does the question of its recovery come in?” Randhawa asked, adding that the CM would get a “befitting reply” to any such notices.
Within a few hours, Mann tweeted his official order to the chief secretary, calling it the “notice Randhawa had asked for.”
ਆਹ ਲਓ ਰੰਧਾਵਾ ਸਾਹਬ ਤੁਹਾਡੇ “ਅੰਸਾਰੀ” ਵਾਲਾ ਨੋਟਿਸ .. pic.twitter.com/u9YtCd5CtY
— Bhagwant Mann (@BhagwantMann) July 3, 2023
A few hours after the official order was issued, the Congress leader tweeted that he would avail legal recourse to respond to it.
I have received your notice Mr. @BhagwantMann. As expected you have again backtracked from your claims & the notice now served is of Rs. 17.60 Lac as against 55 lac. Since I don’t play Twitter-Twitter, I will take the legal recourse & drag you down from your high horse. pic.twitter.com/RyD96Jyncm
— Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa (@Sukhjinder_INC) July 3, 2023
Randhawa was the jails minister in Punjab when Amarinder was the chief minister from 2017 to 2021. He stayed on in the cabinet even after Amarinder resigned from his position in September 2021 and eventually became the deputy chief minister when Congress leader Charanjit Singh Channi took over the reins of government.
While Randhawa continues to be a Congress leader, Amarinder left the party soon after his resignation.
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War of Words
In a press statement issued in April, Mann called the payment of Rs 55 lakh toward litigation fees for keeping Ansari in Punjab a “brazen loot” of public money that “cannot be tolerated”.
Mann had alleged that the previous dispensations had, for reasons best known to themselves, kept Ansari in “full comforts” by ensuring he faced no difficulty.
Ansari faced several criminal cases, including murder and kidnapping, and was convicted in at least five of them.
Following Mann’s tweet Sunday, Amarinder said that he had been chief minister for 9.5 years while Mann hadn’t even completed 1.5 years in the position, and that due process of law was followed to bring Ansari to Punjab and detain him here.
“Where does the chief minister or for that matter the jails minister come into the picture?” he asked Mann.
Responding through a statement, Mann said history is witness to how the “wise” Patiala scion has ruined the state. Punjab and its people knew how the former chief minister was more concerned about his position than about the state and its people, he added.
Mann also criticised ancestors of the erstwhile Patiala royal scion, saying that it was hard to forget that his family sided with the Mughals and the British for their own interests. Amarinder, too, “hobnobbed” with the Congress and the Akalis whenever it suited his political interests, he alleged.
Randhawa, meanwhile, questioned Mann’s state of sobriety when he tweeted “every evening”.
At a press conference, Randhawa said only the Punjab Police could answer why Ansari was being kept in Ropar jail.
“Jails are the only custodians of the accused. The jails department is not responsible for the prisoners being in jail, for which the police is answerable. Why Ansari was in a jail in Punjab can only be answered by the Punjab Police and not the jails department,” he said.
“Moreover, the jails department was a respondent in the litigation that was going on in the Supreme Court, not the litigants. I had nothing to do with the case.”
Addressing a conference later in the evening, AAP’s Punjab chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang alleged that despite Randhawa’s claims, Ansari was given five-star facilities in jail, produced in Mohali court on a wheelchair and his family was provided a house near the jail.
Randhawa and “Captain Amarinder should pay Rs 27.5 lakh each and end this matter. Randhawa’s wish of official notice will be granted too, and he’ll be served a notice soon,” Kang said.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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