Chandigarh: The Bhagwant Mann authorities’s determination to get well lakhs of rupees spent on litigation prices to maintain 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 large political storm.
Ansari was lodged at Rupnagar central jail from January 2019 to April 2021 in reference to an extortion case lodged in Mohali.
In a tweet Sunday, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann introduced that his Aam Aadmi Social gathering (AAP) authorities would get well the litigation value for maintaining Ansari, a five-time MLA who reportedly ran a criminal offense syndicate in Ghazipur-Mau-Varanasi area, within the Punjab jail from the 2 leaders.
The tweet got here two months after Mann stated that he had returned the file to make the fee of Rs 55 lakh despatched to him for clearance.
For context, the Uttar Pradesh authorities had approached the Supreme Courtroom in September 2021 looking for Ansari’s switch to the state. Punjab had opposed the switch.
“The charge spent on preventing a authorized battle to be able to maintain their pal UP’s gangster (Mukhtar) Ansari in Punjab’s jail won’t be paid from the Punjab authorities’s treasury. This quantity might be recovered from Amarinder Singh and his jails minister Sukhjinder Randhawa. In case they don’t pay this quantity their pension and different authorities amenities might be withdrawn,” the chief minister stated in Punjabi.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
Each Amarinder, a former Congress chief who’s at present within the Bharatiya Janata Social gathering, and Randhawa have reacted sharply to the event, with the previous calling Mann’s assertion “silly”. In a tweet he posted hours after Mann’s, Amarinder suggested the chief minister to “first be taught the method of legislation & investigation”.
Mr @BhagwantMann first be taught the method of legislation & investigation earlier than issuing such silly statements that solely expose your ignorance concerning the strategy of governance.
Ansari was dropped at Punjab & detained right here underneath due strategy of legislation for the investigation, so the place does the… https://t.co/ill1tbaUEs
— Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) July 2, 2023
Addressing a press convention Monday, Randhawa dared the chief minister to ship him a discover.
“On one hand, he’s saying that the quantity due on account of the authorized charges has not been paid. So, the place does the query of its restoration are available in?” Randhawa requested, including that the CM would get a “befitting reply” to any such notices.
Inside a couple of hours, Mann tweeted his official order to the chief secretary, calling it the “discover Randhawa had requested for.”
ਆਹ ਲਓ ਰੰਧਾਵਾ ਸਾਹਬ ਤੁਹਾਡੇ “ਅੰਸਾਰੀ” ਵਾਲਾ ਨੋਟਿਸ .. pic.twitter.com/u9YtCd5CtY
— Bhagwant Mann (@BhagwantMann) July 3, 2023
Just a few hours after the official order was issued, the Congress chief tweeted that he would avail authorized recourse to answer it.
I’ve acquired your discover Mr. @BhagwantMann. As anticipated you may have once more backtracked out of your claims & the discover now served is of Rs. 17.60 Lac as in opposition to 55 lac. Since I don’t play Twitter-Twitter, I’ll take the authorized recourse & drag you down out of your excessive 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 within the cupboard even after Amarinder resigned from his place in September 2021 and finally turned the deputy chief minister when Congress chief Charanjit Singh Channi took over the reins of presidency.
Whereas Randhawa continues to be a Congress chief, Amarinder left the celebration quickly after his resignation.
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Conflict of Phrases
In a press assertion issued in April, Mann known as the fee of Rs 55 lakh towards litigation charges for maintaining Ansari in Punjab a “brazen loot” of public cash that “can’t be tolerated”.
Mann had alleged that the earlier dispensations had, for causes finest recognized to themselves, stored Ansari in “full comforts” by making certain he confronted no problem.
Ansari confronted a number of legal circumstances, together with homicide and kidnapping, and was convicted in at the very least 5 of them.
Following Mann’s tweet Sunday, Amarinder stated that he had been chief minister for 9.5 years whereas Mann hadn’t even accomplished 1.5 years within the place, and that due strategy of legislation was adopted to carry Ansari to Punjab and detain him right here.
“The place does the chief minister or for that matter the jails minister come into the image?” he requested Mann.
Responding by way of a press release, Mann stated historical past is witness to how the “clever” Patiala scion has ruined the state. Punjab and its individuals knew how the previous chief minister was extra involved about his place than concerning the state and its individuals, he added.
Mann additionally criticised ancestors of the erstwhile Patiala royal scion, saying that it was onerous to overlook that his household sided with the Mughals and the British for their very own pursuits. Amarinder, too, “hobnobbed” with the Congress and the Akalis at any time when it suited his political pursuits, he alleged.
Randhawa, in the meantime, questioned Mann’s state of sobriety when he tweeted “each night”.
At a press convention, Randhawa stated solely the Punjab Police might reply why Ansari was being stored in Ropar jail.
“Jails are the one custodians of the accused. The jails division will not be liable for the prisoners being in jail, for which the police is answerable. Why Ansari was in a jail in Punjab can solely be answered by the Punjab Police and never the jails division,” he stated.
“Furthermore, the jails division was a respondent within the litigation that was occurring within the Supreme Courtroom, not the litigants. I had nothing to do with the case.”
Addressing a convention later within the night, AAP’s Punjab chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang alleged that regardless of Randhawa’s claims, Ansari was given five-star amenities in jail, produced in Mohali courtroom on a wheelchair and his household was supplied a home close to the jail.
Randhawa and “Captain Amarinder ought to pay Rs 27.5 lakh every and finish this matter. Randhawa’s want of official discover might be granted too, and he’ll be served a discover quickly,” Kang stated.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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