Punjab transport and jails minister Laljit Singh Bhullar resigned from the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP executive on Saturday, a day after his name surfaced in the suicide of Gagandeep Singh Randhawa, the district supervisor (DM) of the Punjab Verbalize Warehousing Company, in Amritsar.
Randhawa, who held extra price of Patti, died after ingesting a poisonous substance on Friday evening. A video surfaced rapidly earlier than his death in some unspecified time in the future of which he purportedly said, “Kha layi (poison) thuade yaar ne minister Laljit Bhullar de dar ton, hun ni bachda (Your friend has consumed poison due to the distress of minister Laljit Bhullar; I received’t continue to exist now).”
The controversy centres on allegations that Bhullar pressured the DM to award a warehousing tender to a political aide. When Randhawa refused, he was once allegedly summoned to the minister’s jam, assaulted, and coerced into “confessing” on digital camera to accepting a ₹10 lakh bribe as a system of blackmail.
Bhullar denies price, CM presentations him door
Chief minister Bhagwant Mann, who sought the minister’s resignation, termed the incident “very sad and painful”.
“Whatever I could well per chance originate, I get carried out. I straight away sought the minister’s resignation, and we can provide price of his department to 1 other minister,” Mann said. “To be obvious the investigation into the suicide isn’t any longer compromised, we get now taken the resignation. We stand with the family on this advanced time.”
Submitting his resignation, Bhullar disregarded the charges as “baseless and unfounded” however claimed he was once stepping appropriate down to facilitate a comely inquiry. “Our occasion has persistently stood for truth. I ask my occasion and the CM to settle for my resignation so as that my situation does no longer change into an obstacle in ensuring a comely inquiry. I desire the very fact to come out,” Bhullar said.
Oppn demands arrest, CBI probe
The incident has caused a political outcry in Punjab. Chief of the opposition Partap Singh Bajwa of the Congress demanded that the case be handed over to central companies.
“Gagandeep Singh Randhawa’s family must compile justice. My first demand is that a case of homicide must peaceable be registered, Laljit Singh Bhullar must peaceable be arrested, after which the case must peaceable be handed over to the CBI for investigation,” Bajwa said.
Completely different opposition leaders, including Shiromani Akali Dal chief Bikram Singh Majithia and Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira, additionally demanded criminal movement, alleging that the officer was once physically assaulted on the minister’s jam earlier than his death.
