Amarinder, Randhawa tried level best to save Mukhtar Ansari: Mann

Continuing his attack on former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and former Jail Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday released a letter written by Randhawa to Captain about Uttar Pradesh’s gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari’s stay in the state’s jail.

Releasing the letter written by Randhawa to Captain Amarinder on Twitter, the CM said the letter written on 1 April 2021 clearly shows that both these leaders were well aware of the matter. He said surprisingly both these leaders are now feigning ignorance about the issue and are trying to mislead the people.

Mann, however, said that in reality both these leaders were hand-in-glove with each other to save the dreaded gangster.

The CM said these ‘experienced politicians’ tried their level best to save the dreaded gangster and ensure a comfortable stay for him in a jail in Punjab.

He said it is surprising that these leaders are claiming that they are not aware of who came in jail or not but reality is that they themselves hatched the entire conspiracy to save Ansari from getting into the custody of UP police.

Mann said these shameless leaders are misleading the people with their lies but their every sin will be exposed in coming days.

The CM said the honest government formed by the people of state will not allow the nefarious designs of these politicians to succeed. Mann further said this was just the tip of the iceberg and he will bring the real face of these leaders through the number of proofs he has against these leaders.

The Punjab CM on Monday went ahead with his announcement to recover the fee of the lawyer hired to appear in the Supreme Court to defend gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari’s stay in a Punjab jail and sought a file for serving a recovery notice to Amarinder and Randhawa.

This was after Randhawa on Monday threatened to file a defamation case against Mann for allegedly indulging in his character assassination by accusing him of extending largesse to Ansari.

After the Congress leader challenged the CM to issue a recovery notice to him with regard to the Ansari matter, Mann took to Twitter to share a letter signed by him for putting up the file for recovery of the expenditure incurred on the lawyer hired to ensure Ansari remained in Punjab jail equally from Captain Amarinder and Randhawa.

In the letter, the CM said engaging senior advocate Dushyant Dave for defending the case of Ansari was not required as no public interest or interest of the state of Punjab was involved in the case. It said expenditure incurred on the lawyer (Dave) may be recovered equally from former jails minister Randhawa and former CM Captain as they proposed and approved to engage Dave as an advocate in this case.

Reacting to Mann’s statement on Sunday to recover Rs 55 lakh spent on Ansari’s stay in state jail from the former CM and Randhawa, Amarinder, who is in Bharatiya Janata Party now had, asked Mann to learn the process of law and investigation before issuing such statements that only expose his ignorance about the process of governance.

In April this year, Mann returned the file to make payment worth Rs 55 lakh from state exchequer to the senior advocate Dushyant Dave who represented the Punjab government in the Supreme Court in 2021 when the Uttar Pradesh government had sought Ansari’s transfer to UP awaiting clearance from the Punjab government which had opposed the transfer.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) state government had early this year marked a probe into the allegations related to Ansari’s stay in Punjab which pointed out glaring lapses by the jail department in arranging the stay.

The inquiry report alleged Ansari had connections with some state and national Congress leaders. Ansari was in Ropar jail in connection with an extortion case from January 2019 to April 2021 during the tenure of the previous Congress government led by Captain Amarinder Singh.