Punjab Assembly session: Bajwa questions Speaker's U-turn on seeking DGP's report on bribery issue

Congress Legislature Party leader Partap Singh Bajwa on Wednesday questioned Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan on his taking a U-turn on the issue of seeking report from the Punjab Director General of Police regarding an ASI accepting bribe from a “categorised” gangster.

On the third day of the Punjab Assembly Session, 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.

The Speaker told the House that he decided to go by the ‘sense of the House’ in seeking a report on all such black sheep from the Home Secretary.

He said the ASI had accepted bribe during the SAD and Congress governments’ tenures and the FIR was registered during the AAP government’s tenure.

Bajwa did not further push the issue after the Speaker’s reply. CM Bhagwant Mann was not present in the House. AAP MLA Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh also did not participate in the issue.

Interestingly, when the House had decided to seek the report, it had sent alarm bells ringing in the corridors of power. Had the report been given by the DGP today, and had it been debated, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who holds charge of the Home Department, had to take the Opposition questions on the issue.