Former IPS officer and Amritsar North legislator penalised for questioning government’s actions in high-profile Vigilance case
CHANDIGARH: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has suspended its Amritsar North MLA Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh for five years, days after he publicly criticised Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann over the arrest of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia in a disproportionate assets case.
The suspension was announced by the party’s Political Affairs Committee and comes amid growing internal dissent within AAP over the use of vigilance and police powers for political ends.
Kunwar Vijay, a former IPS officer, had posted a video on social media showing Vigilance Bureau officials conducting a raid at Majithia’s residence in Amritsar on June 25, as part of an ongoing probe into allegedly disproportionate assets worth ₹540 crore. The video also showed Majithia’s wife Ganieve Kaur protesting the action, which Kunwar Vijay described as an attack on personal dignity.
“When Majithia was in jail, the Mann government made no attempt to interrogate him or seek his remand, and eventually allowed him bail. Now, all of a sudden, raids are being conducted, and his family’s privacy is being violated, ” Kunwar Vijay stated in a strongly worded post.
He acknowledged his ideological opposition to Majithia but asserted that the treatment of political opponents must adhere to ethical norms. “This is not just about politics. It is about the dignity of every family—politician or commoner. Conducting such raids in the early morning hours is against the values we claim to uphold, ” he said.
Kunwar Vijay also accused successive governments of misusing police and vigilance agencies for political vendettas, warning that such actions rarely yield real results but always damage democratic institutions.
The MLA's remarks, seen as direct criticism of the Bhagwant Mann-led government’s handling of the case, appear to have triggered disciplinary action from the party.
AAP sources confirmed that the decision to suspend Kunwar Vijay Pratap was taken unanimously by the party’s top leadership, with his “repeated anti-party activities and public dissent” cited as the reason.
The move has sparked fresh controversy within the ruling party, with opposition leaders claiming that AAP’s promise of internal democracy has now been exposed as hollow.
Kunwar Vijay Pratap, known for his role as a senior investigator in the Bargari sacrilege and police firing cases, was a high-profile addition to AAP ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections and won with a significant margin from Amritsar North.
With his suspension, AAP now faces questions over dissent suppression, especially at a time when its leadership has come under fire for targeting rivals while failing to act consistently within its own ranks.