A blame game has begun between the chief ministers of Haryana and Punjab over the arrest of Honeypreet Insan on Thursday.
While Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar accused the Punjab Police of not sharing information with its Haryana counterpart ahead of her arrest on October 3, on the other hand, Punjab CM Amarinder Singh alleged that the allegations were an attempt to shift attention from the situation in Haryana.
“Punjab Police has helped her (Honeypreet) and shielded her. They had the information about her but did not share it with us,” Khattar told the media.
“Definitely, there is something amiss and we will find it out soon as her interrogation is on and she will spill the beans,” he added.
Meanwhile, Punjab chief minister Amarinder said after unsuccessfully trying to pin the blame for the Panchkula violence on the Punjab government, Khattar was now trying, once again, to divert public attention from the total collapse of the law and order in Haryana since the day dera chief was found guilty on rape charges.
The Punjab CM said if the state police had any information about Honeypreet they would definitely have shared the same with the Haryana police.
Captain Amarinder pointed out that reports, in fact, suggested that some senior Haryana police officers had known of Honeypreet’s whereabouts for several days but had failed to arrest her.
Instead of probing his own officials’ role in the entire affair, Khattar was simply trying to shift focus to Punjab, as he had done in the wake of the Panchkula violence, said Amarinder.
He said Punjab police had been giving regular inputs to their counterparts in Haryana even before the Panchkula court hearing in the Ram Rahim case, said Amarinder, adding that the Haryana government and police had failed to take cognizance or act on the information.
The Punjab CM made it clear that while the Punjab police had not been pursuing Honeypreet since she was not wanted in any case in the state, there was no question of shielding her.
(With agency inputs)