Jakhar questions Kejriwal’s move to report gangster threat in Mohali

Chandigarh, November 13

Former Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar has questioned why an alleged gangster threat to AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal, received by a Delhi MLA in the national capital, led to a police complaint in Mohali.

Jakhar said Kejriwal, a former Delhi chief minister, should have approached the Delhi Police if the threat was genuine. He suggested that Kejriwal meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah and seek a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe to establish its authenticity.

He also questioned why Kejriwal had approached the Punjab Police while, according to him, avoiding an electoral contest in the state.

Alleging that extortion calls had become commonplace since AAP came to power in Punjab, Jakhar said ordinary residents were bearing the brunt of gangster activities. He claimed that police often advised extortion victims to negotiate with gangsters and settle for a lower amount instead of taking action against them.

Referring to gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, whose name AAP leaders have mentioned in connection with the alleged threat, Jakhar accused the Punjab government of facilitating interviews with him from inside state jails.

Jakhar also alleged that incidents of sacrilege involving Sri Guru Granth Sahib began after AAP entered Punjab in 2014. Referring to the 2015 incidents, he said the state had witnessed several difficult periods but had never experienced anything like what followed the party’s arrival.

He alleged that Kejriwal had stayed at the homes of separatists in Moga during the 2017 Assembly election campaign. He also accused Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann of repeatedly disrespecting Sri Akal Takht Sahib at the behest of AAP’s Delhi leadership.

Jakhar further accused AAP of bringing people facing criminal cases into politics. He alleged that the party had backed a person in Gurdaspur facing 128 police cases, while Mann had embraced a person in Ferozepur who had 49 cases against him.

The BJP leader also showed the media photographs of a man from Abohar, identified as Gaggi, against whom he claimed 14 drug-trafficking cases had been registered. He alleged that the photographs showed him celebrating Diwali with police personnel.

Jakhar accused the government of making the police beholden to gangsters and questioned what justice ordinary people could expect.

Predicting AAP’s defeat in the 2027 Assembly elections, Jakhar said Punjabis would nevertheless be left to deal with the consequences of what he described as the criminalisation of politics.

Describing gangsters allegedly patronised by AAP as the party’s “Waris AAP De” (heirs of AAP), he accused Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia of seeking electoral support from gangsters, the drug mafia and the sand mafia.

Responding to another question, Jakhar said Mann should have defended Punjab’s honour, as minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian had done, instead of allowing the Delhi leadership to reduce him to a chief minister in name only.