Punjab’s jails minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa alleges threats, says police no help

Punjab’s Jails and Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa has hit out at the Punjab Police, alleging there had been no action so far on his complaints to the state police chief and other senior officers that he had received threats from Khalistani radicals a number of times. Talking to The Indian Express on Wednesday, Randhawa said he had received over 20 threatening calls and videos from Khalistani radicals and had forwarded those to the top police officers, but to no avail. Even a gangster lodged in a jail had threatened Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, he said.

Showing on his phone several videos of youths threatening him of dire consequences, Randhawa said, “I forwarded a few of these to DGP Suresh Arora and DGP (Intelligence) Dinkar Gupta on WhatsApp. I have not Punjab’s jails minister alleges threats, says police no help got any response from them. No one has been booked,” he said.

“Our police are busy protecting former revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia and Dyal Singh Kolianwali, an aide of former CM Parkash Singh Badal. Majithia, as I have already said during a the Cabinet meeting, gets a pilot vehicle and security en route of his travel. Kolianwali has at least 10 security guards. I, who has been threatened by not only the radicals but also gangsters, have got who do not even have AK-47 rifles. They are still carrying carbines,” Randhawa said.

He said that as the jails minister, he was “ashamed” that one of the jail inmates had threatened the Chief Minister. “I can only be ashamed, being the minister of the prisons. But what was the Intelligence department doing? I have been advising the Intelligence to send its sleuths posing as inmates in the jail. But we are still not able to get any information.”

“I have a question for the police. They can provide security to Majithia and Kolianwali. What about our jail superintendents? What about the security of their children?” Randhawa said.

The minister said the police were not able to locate two persons who had threatened him by posting videos on social media. “I got my men to find out. One of them is from a village 7 km away from my village, Dera Baba Nanak. My information is that the police did not go there even once.”