Senior Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa was Tuesday questioned by the police for over five hours in connection with an FIR registered against him over his “50 grenades have reached Punjab” statement, even as the party leadership closed ranks behind him in a show of strength.
After coming out of the police station, Bajwa termed his questioning as a “sustained interrogation” and said his targeting by the state’s AAP government was “political vendetta” that will eventually lead to Congress’ resurgence.
“This act of AAP government will be the cause of resurgence of Congress in Punjab. There was a sustained interrogation and we have given befitting reply to each question,” he said.
Bajwa, the Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly, also said calling him to the police station for questioning was an insult to the constitutional post he holds and alleged that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann could not “digest” his expressing concern over the current law and order situation in the state.
He also addressed Congress leaders and workers who had accompanied him to the police station and had been staging a sit-in there and thanked them for being united in their overwhelming support to him.
“It is this very unity, which we need to remove the AAP government from power. There may have been mistakes made by me or by other party workers, but today everyone has come together for the sake of our honour,” he said.
“The Congress has a very good leadership. After winning the elections (2027 Assembly polls) whoever is chosen, we will accept him as our leader. I give you my promise,” he added.
Bajwa has been booked under Sections 197(1)(d) (false and misleading information that endangers the country’s sovereignty and unity) and 353(2) (false statements intended to create enmity and hatred or ill will) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Earlier, Bajwa arrived at the police station at around 2:30 pm accompanied by party’s state unit chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, MPs Sukhjinder Randhawa and Charanjit Singh Channi, MLAs Rana Gurjit Singh, Sukhpal Singh Khaira, Pargat Singh, and former MLAs Balbir Sidhu, and Kulbir Singh Zira among others.
As only Bajwa and his counsel were allowed inside, Congress leaders staged a sit-in outside the police station and raised slogans against Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and the AAP government, accusing them of misusing the police to target opposition leaders.
During the time that Bajwa was questioned national leaders, including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, remained in touch with the state leadership.
Prior to that the state Congress leadership assembled at the Punjab Congress headquarters in a show of strength where Bajwa warned CM Mann to be prepared for retaliation.
“If I remain alive, then I want to tell you Bhagwant Mann, you be prepared,” he said.
Bajwa said under the parliamentary system, the LoP is considered a shadow chief minister. “Will a shadow CM run away? The Punjab Police came at 8 pm and pasted summons outside my house to appear at the police station. I want to ask the CM if his government has ever pasted any such summon outside the house of a Punjab Police AIG who is on the run in a drugs case. Your police got the interview of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi done on a TV channel from inside jail,” he said.
The senior Congress leader said that if Mann had any idea of what happened in Punjab till 1992-93, he would realise the seriousness of the situation.
“He must not have heard a gunshot in his entire life, how would he know what happened in Punjab and under what fresh threats Punjab is,” the LoP said, warning that the situation in state right now is “very serious and critical”.
On Mann taking a swipe at him on hiring lawyers following the registration of an FIR, Bajwa said it was his democratic right and asked whether AAP leaders like Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia came out of Tihar Jail without any lawyers.
Meanwhile, Warring cautioned police officers, including the DGP, Mohali SSP and the SHO concerned to ensure that they do not succumb to the political pressure of the AAP. He said, the Congress will remember each and every officer who has intimidated and persecuted the party leaders and workers.
Questioning the action against Bajwa, he said the LoP had expressed concern over the law and order situation and he took the information about the bombs from a newspaper report. He also shared a detailed list of grenade attacks, which were reported from different parts of the state and which were initially dismissed by the police as the tyre bursts and cylinder blasts.
Replying to AAP’s allegation that Bajwa had links with Pakistan, Warring said the Congress leader’s father was assassinated and he escaped a bomb attack.
Channi said Mann should have shown some grace and called up Bajwa to discuss the matter instead of ordering an FIR. He reminded Mann that he was not holding a “stage show” but a responsible position of that of the state’s chief minister. He warned that dark clouds were hovering over the horizon of Punjab.
Former Deputy CM Sukhjinder Randhawa said if Mann was so alert in registering FIRs, why he had not ordered any inquiry so far in the pro-Khalistan activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun’s “revelations that he had financed AAP campaign in 2017 and 2022”.
Randhawa also challenged Mann to reveal from where had those grenades come, which were lobbed at various police stations and other places in Punjab.
In an interview with a private television channel, Bajwa claimed, “I have come to know that 50 bombs have reached Punjab. Of this, 18 have exploded, 32 are yet to go off.”
Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa warned the Punjab CM Bhagwant Singh Mann to be prepared for retaliation. (Source: FB) 
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