UP gangster Mukhtar Ansari’s stay in a Punjab jail has snowballed into a controversy with the AAP Government considering to move to court to recover Rs 55 lakh to keep the notorious criminal in Ropar Jail with all comforts and then CM Captain Amarinder Singh accusing state Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann of not understanding how governments works.

Speaking at a function on Monday, the Punjab chief minister said the state government is mulling to move to court for recovery of Rs 55 lakh from the former ministers “who have signed the file to ensure cozy stay” of Ansari in Ropar jail. He said this is brazen loot of the public money which cannot be tolerated at any cost.

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Mann said for reasons best known to the previous regimes this notorious criminal was kept in Ropar jail with all comforts for which Rs 55 lakh were spent from the taxpayers’ money.

Responding to Mann’s charges on the previous Congress government, Amarinder Singh, who was CM when Ansari was lodged in the Ropar Jail between January 2019 and April 2021, said Mann should first understand how governments work.

“He (Mann) has only spent nine months (in government), I have spent nine and a half years. When a police investigation takes place, the investigation officer has every right to call a person for investigation, if he has committed a crime in Punjab. It has a system,” Amarinder, who has joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said while addressing a press conference in Jalandhar.

“Now, tell me about Bishnoi (gangster Lawrence Bishnoi). He has been sitting in Bathinda jail for 10 years. Day before yesterday, the Delhi police took him for investigation. If Ansari was lodged here, it was due to an ongoing investigation. This is a system, there’s nothing new about it. Mann should first understand, then speak,” the two-time former CM added.

Earlier on Thursday, the CM, Bhagwant 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.

Mann alleged apart from ensuring a comfortable stay the state government ensured that this hardcore criminal did not face any sort of difficulty within the jail and escaped the legal action against him.

The CM said that the benevolence of the previous rulers towards this dangerous criminal can be judged from the fact that though 48 warrants were issued against him but the government didn’t bother to produce him.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) state government had early this year marked a probe into the allegations related to Ansari’s stay in Punjab.A probe led by additional director general of police (ADGP) Counter Intelligence RN Dhoke had a few days ago submitted a report to the CM, pointing out glaring lapses by the jail department in arranging stay.The inquiry report alleged Ansari had connections with some state and national Congress leaders.

 The report recommended proceedings under the Prevention of Corruption Act against some jail officials for allegedly taking bribes from Ansari in lieu of providing him special facilities.

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. Congress leader Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa was the minister of jails during the time.