Opposition questions U-turn by Punjab Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan on seeking DGP report in graft case

The Opposition Congress today questioned Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan’s U-turn on seeking a report by the Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) regarding a Kotkapura-based ASI accepting a bribe from a “categorised” gangster.

Putting the Speaker in a tight spot during zero hour on the concluding day of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha session, Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa said once the House had ratified the decision of the Speaker to seek report from the DGP, he could not change the decision without the consent of the House.

Instead of seeking the report, Sandhwan had written a letter to Home Secretary Gurkirat Kirpal Singh, asking him to identify all black sheep in the police. He said in the House that the ASI had accepted bribe of Rs 50,000 twice during the tenure of the SAD-BJP and Congress regimes and it was the AAP government that had registered an FIR in the case. CM Bhagwant Mann was not present in the House when the issue was raised.

Bajwa did not press the issue further after the Speaker’s reply. AAP MLA Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh, who had supported the Speaker on seeking a report from the DGP, also kept mum.

The issue snowballed into a verbal duel between the treasury benches and the Opposition benches when Pargat Singh raked up the police-gangster nexus by pointing out that the police were involved in selling drugs. Led by minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, who was supported by other AAP MLAs, dared Pargat Singh to list the names of such policemen. The Speaker intervened to calm down the situation.

Interestingly, when the House had decided to seek the DGP’s report, it had sent alarm bells ringing in the corridors of power and the CM, who holds the charge of the Home Department, had to face the Opposition questions on the issue.