Won’t succumb to pressure tactics, says CM after SAD questions inquiry into ''politician-gangster nexus''

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said on Monday that he would ensure thorough inquiry into allegations of possible nexus between gangsters and politicians in the state.

Amarinder Singh. Tribune file photo

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, December 9

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said on Monday that he would ensure thorough inquiry into allegations of possible nexus between gangsters and politicians in the state.

The chief minister was responding to rivals Shiromani akali Dal’s allegation that the inquiry he had ordered was a mere eyewash and that he was protecting Jails Minister Sukhjinder Randhawa, who has been accused of shielding gangsters in the state. Capt, as the chief minister popularly goes by, said he “would not succumb to cheap pressure tactics”—a statement clearly aimed at opposition SAD—but said he intended to get to the bottom of the allegations. He also said the guilty would not go unpunished.

The chief minister also said that he had ordered an inquiry under Punjab’s Director General Police after he received some ootographs that he claimed showed links between some gangsters and the “top Akali leadership”.

He also said that he had shown the photographs in question to Punjab Governor VP Singh Badnore before ordering an inquiry, and that, if the allegations were proved true, it would “expose the role, nature and extent of Akali involvement in patronising criminals and gangsters in the state”, Amarinder Singh said.

“The evidence received in the form of the photographs, along with various documents, showed a clear nexus between the Badals and other Akalis leaders, who were obviously trying to divert attention from their involvement by targeting Jails Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa,” the Chief Minister said. “The SAD, in fact, had no proof of any involvement of Randhawa or any other Congress minister/leaders with gangsters and criminals.”

“The evidence was serious and required a full-fledged police investigation, and he had asked the DGP to leave no stone unturned into completing the same at the earliest,” he said, adding: “Such criminal misconduct could not be condoned at any cost”.