CHANDIGARH: In a striking revelation, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, a former IPS officer, has openly accused his own party’s government in Punjab of extending patronage to the liquor mafia in the state. The Amritsar (North) legislator alleged that individuals involved in the illicit liquor trade have become integral to the regime and are now effectively “running the show.”
“The mafia-police nexus has a free run under this government. They (liquor mafia) have been made a part of the government and are now controlling the operations, ” said Singh, who resigned as Inspector General of Police (IGP) before joining AAP in 2021.
Kunwar Vijay Pratap made these scathing remarks during his visit to Bhangali village in Majitha sub-division of Amritsar, where he met the families of victims affected by the recent spurious liquor tragedy that claimed 27 lives. He termed the suspension of lower-rung officers as an eyewash and demanded action against senior officers, including those at the DIG level, accusing them of protecting criminals even during their tenures as district police chiefs.
The MLA also called upon Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to act decisively and live up to his own statements made during the previous Congress regime, when he had demanded that then Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh be booked for murder after a similar liquor tragedy in 2020 claimed 120 lives in Amritsar, Tarn Taran, and Batala. “Now, 20 people have died in Mann’s home district Sangrur after consuming spurious liquor in March 2024. Will he take the same stand now?” questioned Singh.
Expressing his dissatisfaction with the government’s handling of the situation, the former IGP urged the Punjab Speaker to hold a special session of the Assembly to discuss the root causes of the recurring tragedies. He also cited AAP’s 2022 election campaign, where the party supremo Arvind Kejriwal had claimed that officers like Kunwar Vijay Pratap would ensure that gangsters and mafias were eradicated from the state. “But today, the mafia-police nexus is still thriving under this government, ” Singh asserted.