PTI
Chandigarh
Punjab minister Laljit Singh Bhullar tendered his resignation from the state cabinet on Saturday after Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann asked him to step down amid allegations of abetment of suicide of a state warehousing corporation official.
Gagandeep Singh Randhawa, the district manager of the Punjab State Warehousing Corporation in Amritsar, allegedly took his own life after consuming a poisonous substance on Friday.
A purported video surfaced on social media on Saturday in which Randhawa, who held the additional charge of Patti, was heard saying that he had consumed some poisonous substance and accused the transport minister of harassment.
“Your friend consumed poison because of fear of minister Laljit Bhullar. I will not survive now,” Randhawa could be heard saying in
the video.
However, Bhullar, the MLA from Patti in Tarn Taran, rejected allegations against him as baseless.
Chief Minister Mann said he has directed the chief secretary to conduct an impartial probe into the matter and asked the minister to step down for a fair probe.
“What are the reasons behind it? It is a matter of probe. Before conducting the probe, we took resignation from our cabinet minister so that no one could influence the probe or could put any pressure,” Mann said, responding to reporters’ query on Bhullar’s resignation.
No negligence will be tolerated in the matter, Mann said, adding Bhullar’s portfolios of transport and prison will be allocated to some other minister.
As the video surfaced online, the opposition party leaders slammed the AAP government and demanded action against Bhullar.
