Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) general secretary Parambans Singh Romana today said chief minister Bhagwant Mann, who also held the home and jails portfolios, should tell Punjabis why the State Special Operations Cell (SSOC), Fazilka had colluded with jail officials to delay the probe into 43,000 mobile phone calls made from the Central jail, Ferozpur by drug traffickers in the last nine months.
Asserting that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had been indicted in this regard by the Punjab and Haryana high court, Parambans Romana said the high court also noted that the SSOC, Fazilka had even failed to probe who had provided the mobile phones to the drug smugglers and who had allowed them to make 43,000 calls. He said the court noted that despite taking the remand of the smugglers these facts were yet to be divulged. He disclosed that these phone calls were made both during the previous Congress government as well as the current AAP government.
Asserting that the court during hearing of a drug case also asserted that it appeared that the officers who gave these phones to the drug smugglers and allowed their usage in jail were being protected by the AAP government, Romana said this made it clear that State jails had been turned into dens of crime in Punjab. “Drug smugglers and gangsters are being provided every facility in jail and also being given government patronage due to which they are running their criminal empire from jail with impunity”. He said this was the reason why all major crimes in the State be it the killing of noted singer Sidhu Mooswala, the RPG rocket attack on the State Intelligence headquarters or the rocket attack on a police station in Tarn Taran had been planned and executed from Punjab jails.
Stating that chief minister Bhagwant Mann could not escape from his responsibilities, Romana said “Bhagwant Mann is both the home minister as well as the jails minister. What is happening in Punjab jails speaks volumes of the functioning of the chief minister”. He said during his period in the opposition Bhagwant Mann was fond of asserting that a leaf could not move without the will of the chief minister. “He should explain how criminals are being provided VIP facilities to run their criminal empires from jails in Punjab”.