Why CBI raids on Vigilance Bureau casts a long shadow on Mann govt, IPS officer Chauhan
The dust had barely settled over the ED raids on alleged friends and cronies of an aide to CM and the arrest of Cabinet Minister Sanjeev Arora that a new crisis has erupted for AAP.
Instead of basking in the afterglow of a carefully choreographed spiritual-cum-political exercise, the AAP government now finds itself defending the very credibility of its anti-corruption plank.
In a dramatic operation that has left the Punjab government scrambling for explanation, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) swooped down on the state Vigilance Bureau in an unprecedented series of raids. The anti-graft agency’s own headquarters, meant to be the sword against corruption, were suddenly the target, turning the spotlight squarely on the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and exposing systemic rot in an election year.
The timing could not have been more damning. Only few days earlier, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had undertaken a high-profile ‘Shukrana Yatra’, a thanksgiving pilgrimage across key religious sites, immediately after his government notified the Jaagat Jot Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar (Amendment) Act, 2026, a stringent law against sacrilege. The yatra was projected as a moment of moral victory and public connect, a symbolic gesture of gratitude for what the government called ‘historic legislation’ protecting faith.
Yet the CBI raids have overshadowed the benefits that the yatra was meant to harvest. Instead of basking in the afterglow of a carefully choreographed spiritual-cum-political exercise, the AAP government now finds itself defending the very credibility of its anti-corruption plank.
The dust had barely settled over the ED raids on alleged friends and cronies of an aide to CM and the arrest of Cabinet Minister Sanjeev Arora that a new crisis has erupted for AAP. The party blames strong arm tactics by BJP to influence elections in the state and to put a blemish on AAP for electoral gains. It links the ED, CBI raids with the defection of seven Rajya Sabha MPs of the party to BJP, six of them from Punjab, after a few of then were threatened with ED raids and coercive measures. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has publicly stated that the party and Punjab will not be cowed down by these tactics.
AAP state’s unit chief and Cabinet minister Aman Arora went into the firefighting mode as he accused BJP-led Centre of destroying the dignity of federalism by misusing Central agencies. “Through this raid, the CBI wants to prove that there is massive corruption in the vigilance department. If we look at the broader level, there should be some decorum. If the Centre gets a corruption complaint, it should intimate the Punjab government and ask it to set its House in order,” Arora said.
“Though the land of Punjab will not tolerate corruption, any investigation must follow due process and established protocol,” the minister said, adding the Centre has completely “broken” institutional decorum in targeting the Punjab Vigilance Bureau through the CBI.
Arora’s stand notwithstanding, experts say the AAP’s political embarrassment is compounded by a string of fresh controversies that have piled up in rapid succession. The raids come hot on the heels of allegations that the CM appeared intoxicated during proceedings in the Vidhan Sabha, with opposition leaders and social media amplifying videos that have embarrassed the ruling party. At the same time, persistent rumours continue to swirl around FIRs allegedly lodged against defected MP Sandeep Pathak, with the government neither denying, nor confirming if any such FIRs were actually lodged. So much so that Pathak moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which directed the Punjab government not to take any “coercive steps” against the Rajya Sabha member “without seeking prior permission of the court”.
For the Vigilance Bureau itself, the blow is devastating. Created precisely to investigate and prosecute corruption, the Bureau has now been cast in the role of the accused. Senior officials watched in stunned silence as CBI teams searched offices, seized documents and questioned personnel.
The image of the agency, already under scrutiny for alleged selective action against political opponents of the successive governments in the past, has taken a severe dent. A succession of Chief Directors appointed in recent past, with as many as five appointed since the AAP government came to power, and the summary suspensions of senior officers had already left the rank and file of the bureau demoralised.
The raids have also cast an unwelcome shadow on one of the state’s most senior police officers. Sharad Satya Chauhan, the state’s senior-most officer by seniority, had in April 2026 been handed charge of the Vigilance Bureau after years spent in what insiders politely term “the wilderness”. He previously served as Special DGP-cum-Managing Director of the Punjab Police Housing Corporation.
Chauhan, a top contender for the post of director general of police (DGP) in Punjab, has come under scrutiny due to his proximity to one of the accused arrested by the CBI.
The 1994-batch IPS officer’s appointment was touted internally as a return to merit and experience. Barely a month into the new role, Chauhan now finds his reputation and the bureau’s functioning under a cloud.
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