With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Captain Amarinder Singh ridiculing Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s statement that his government will recover the money paid to supreme court lawyers in connection with the detention of Uttar Pradesh gangster Mukhtar Ansari in Punjab, the latter has hit back, questioning the loyalty of the former CM.

Mann has announced to recover Rs 55 lakh spent on “cozy stay” of Ansari in state jail from then CM Captain Amarinder Singh and jail minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa. He said Amarinder and Randhawa will have to pay this money from their own pocket else their pensions and other benefits will be stopped to recover this money.

Reacting to this statement, the former CM, Captain Amarinder Singh asked Mann to learn the process of law and investigation before issuing such statements that only expose his ignorance about the process of governance.

Captain Amarinder said he had remained the Chief Minister of the state for nine and a half years, while Mann has not completed one and a half years even and he should better first learn and gain experience before making such ignorant statements about the processes of governance.

He said Ansari was brought to Punjab and detained in Punjab under due process of law for the investigation. “Where does the Chief Minister or for that matter the Jail Minister come into the picture”, Amarinder asked Mann, while advising him to brush up his knowledge of legal and investigative processes before making such funny statements which will only end up in his (Mann) cutting a sorry figure in the public.

Hitting back to this, in a tweet the Punjab CM defended his move and questioned Amarinder’s loyalty, “Captain Saheb I am protecting the money of the people of Punjab ..you are calling me ignorant ..Captain Saheb you were with Mughals during Mughal rule ..during British rule you were with British ..during Congress rule you was with Congress ..During Akalis rule you were with Akalis ..Now during BJP rule you are with BJP .. Few wise people have wrecked the ship of Punjab..,” Mann said in a roughly translated tweet in Punjabi.

The Punjab CM has earlier today alleged both Captain Amarinder Singh and Randhawa extended largesse to notorious gangster for his comfortable stay in jails of Punjab.

Mann said for reasons best known to the previous regimes, this notorious criminal was kept in Ropar jail with full comfort. He said apart from ensuring comfortable stay, the state government ensured that this hardcore criminal does not face any sort of difficulty within the jail and escapes the legal action against him.

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