CHANDIGARH: BJP national general secretary Tarun chugh today came down heavily on the Punjab cabinet minister Sukhjinder Randhawa for enjoying hospitality of notorious criminal Mukhtar Ansari during his trip to Lucknow.
Chugh said it has demonstrated how the Amarinder Singh government has been patronising gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari to evade appearance in courts in Uttar Pradesh.
In a statement Chugh said the Amarinder government has been going overboard to please Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the matter and it's a matter of shame that the chief Minister deputed Jail Minister to go to Lucknow to placate Ansari family members. He demanded Sukhjinder's expulsion from the cabinet and a high level probe in his UP visit.
Quoting a communication from BJP MLA from Mohammadabad seat, Alka Rai, in which she accused the Congress government in Punjab of helping Mukhtar Ansari, Chugh asked the chief minister why he was trying to save this notorious criminal.
Alka Rai is the wife of MLA Krishanand Rai, who was shot dead in 2005 along with six others.
Ansari, sitting BSP MLA from Mau, is presently lodged in a Ropar jail in connection with an extortion case.
Chugh said courts in Uttar Pradesh had summoned Mukhtar Ansari but the Punjab government is not ready to send him to UP. He demanded action against the jail authorities which were hand-in-glove with Ansari in protecting him.
Chugh said the Congress proposed to use Ansari for Muslim votes in the coming UP elections but the Yogi Government wouldn't let Congress play its game.