Chandigarh, March 23 Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia on Monday criticised the AAP government for taking two days to arrest former Punjab minister Laljit Singh Bhullar, who is accused of encouraging the suicide of an official of the state warehousing corporation.
He alleged that the Bhagwant Mann government did everything possible to protect Bhullar, but was forced to yield to the resistance of the official's family.
Gagandeep Singh Randhawa, a district manager of the Punjab State Warehousing Corporation in Amritsar, allegedly committed suicide by consuming poison early Saturday.
The same day, a video emerged in which he purportedly claimed harassment by Laljit Singh Bhullar.
Bhullar subsequently resigned from his ministerial position at the direction of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann amid the controversy.
The three-time AAP MLA from Patti was arrested on Monday.
Majithia said that Bhullar should have been arrested immediately after Randhawa's death.
The former Punjab minister also demanded that Randhawa's post-mortem be conducted by a panel of doctors from either PGIMER or AIIMS to ensure fairness.
Speaking to the media here, Majithia thanked all opposition leaders, as well as farmer groups and the warehousing corporation union, for raising their voice for Bhullar's arrest.
He praised Randhawa's family for "withstanding intense pressure" from the Aam Aadmi Party in their quest for justice.
Majithia alleged that there is also a larger case of "rampant corruption" involving Bhullar and Aam Aadmi Party functionaries.
"The role of the Amritsar Deputy Commissioner, as well as the Managing Director of the warehousing corporation, and the Chief Secretary, who ignored the repeated pleas of the officer, should also be investigated. This is why a CBI investigation is essential," he said.
"The government has been protecting Bhullar since March 21. First, the FIR in the case was not registered for 24 hours. After this, the government did not move to either arrest the minister or forward his resignation to the governor. Only after it was cornered on all fronts did it decide to arrest the minister today," the Akali leader added.
