In an unprecedented move, the AAP government in Punjab has listed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at the top of its list of VVIPs provided Z-Plus security by the state police with the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann ranked at the second spot. The name of Raghav Chadha, another AAP leader from Delhi, figures in the third position. 

This has kicked off a major political storm in the state as the security cover comprising 55-police personnel which includes 10 trained NSG commandos is all at the expense of the Punjab exchequer.

Kejriwal has already been given Z-Plus security by the Delhi police.

Interestingly, Kejriwal has been described as the Punjab convenor of AAP in the records to justify the state police cover while actually he is the all-India convenor of AAP. Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann happens to be the convenor of the party in the state.

Former deputy chief minister O.P. Soni of the Congress had in April this year filed a petition in the High Court seeking restoration of his Z-Plus security after it was curtailed by the new AAP government.

Soni in his petition attached a document as an annexure dated 29th April 2022 purported to be an official document in which the Punjab government had listed 14 names of Z-Plus protectees with Kejriwal's name on top. Bhagwant Mann's name figures at 2nd position and that of Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha at the third spot.

According to sources close to Soni's lawyers, the Punjab government counsel did not deny the document in court as being fake before the single bench implying that it was genuine. Apart from Soni,  28 other erstwhile protectees too had filed petitions seeking restoration of their security. The same document was attached with all these petitions but the state counsel did not deny the assertion.

Today late in the evening the Punjab police in a cleverly worded statement said that the document being circulated on the internet was not a document of the police. But the statement did not answer the basic question being raised as to whether the Delhi bosses of AAP were given Punjab police protection or not? The Punjab government was not answering various RTI applications seeking to know the security status of Kejriwal and Chadha.

The AAP government in Punjab has also tried to appease different heads of religious sects like Radha Soami Satsang, Beas chief Baba Gurinder Singh Dhillon, Satguru Udhay Singh Naamdhari, Bhaini Sahib Ludhiana, and Baba Niranjan Singh of Dera Sach Khand, Jalandhar by listing them under free police protection by the state.

Sukhpal Khaira, a Congress MLA and president of the Kisan Morcha demanded that Bhagwant Mann should come clean on the security issue instead of skirting the matter. What right does Kejriwal have to avail the services of Punjab police, he questioned?

Also read:  Punjab govt runs into fresh row over arm-twisting by AAP bosses in Delhi