Will join party that forms accountability panel: Niranjan

Blurb: Says intel suggested plan to kill druglord Bhola during transit

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 1

Having retired yesterday and facing chargesheet from his own department over violation of conduct rules on his last working day, Enforcement Directorate’s former Deputy Director Niranjan Singh today said he was ready to join politics but on certain conditions.

Niranjan maintained he was ready to serve in a party that would promise people of the state an accountability commission.

The commission would ensure accountability of all political bosses and bureaucrats who had lent support to drug, transport and sand mining mafias over the past 15-20 years.

“I am ready to serve in a party in which the CM and ministers shun the helicopter culture and zip past the length and breadth of the state by road,” said the officer, while maintaining he won’t join the Congress, SAD or AAP. Asked whether he could join the BJP, he burst into laughter.

Niranjan is known for his proximity to top serving and retired IPS officials who have political interests in the near future.

Niranjan, who originally belongs to Moga before moving to Sangrur, said: “I was a political activist as a student. I was an SFI leader. But as of today, I have no Left or Right leaning. I am a ‘straightist’.”

The ED official also confided during his career, he had faced several life threats. Recalling an incident wherein he was bringing druglord Jagdish Bhola to Jalandhar for an inquiry from Patiala court, he said: “The plan was to bring him to Jalandhar office and all security arrangements had been made. But a good friend of mine shared an intelligence input that some elements had plans to eliminate Bhola en route to Jalandhar. So, I changed the plan and took Bhola to the Chandigarh ED office instead.”