Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu receives ‘death threats from abroad’

The Congress leader’s aide said multiple WhatsApp calls were received from a UK number and the caller threatened to kill Bittu over his remarks against slain pro-Khalistan militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.

Ravneet Singh Bittu (Twitter/File)

The office of Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu on Tuesday claimed to have received threat calls from abroad on his official number. While the MP is currently abroad with his family, his office staff in Ludhiana informed the matter to the police. Bittu is the grandson of slain Punjab chief minister Beant Singh.

Harjinder Dhindsa, Bittu’s aide, said multiple WhatsApp calls were received on the MP’s official number from a UK number and the caller threatened to kill the MP over his remarks against slain pro-Khalistan militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. “The caller said that since Bittu has been vocal against Bhindranwale, they will kill him soon. He also told me to hand over the phone to him,” Dhindsa said.

Ludhiana commissioner of police Kaustubh Sharma said many fraudsters have been making such calls to people. “We will probe the matter thoroughly,” he added.

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Ravneet Singh Bittu has been opposing the release of Babbar Khalsa militant Balwant Singh Rajoana, one of the convicts in the assassination of Beant Singh. Rajoana is currently lodged in Patiala jail. The MP has alleged that Rajoana’s release can spoil the law and order situation in Punjab.

The Congress leader has also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to investigate why SAD chief Sukhbir Badal often talks about releasing Rajoana “who killed a Punjab Chief Minister and 17 others with a bomb”. The MP said he will continue to speak against “terrorism, Khalistan and anti-national forces who try to disturb peace in Punjab and the country.”

Recently, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) allotted the party ticket to Rajoana’s sister Kamaldeep Kaur Rajoana for the Sangrur Lok Sabha bypoll slated for June 23. The party has raised the issue of release of Sikh prisoners lodged in different jails across the country.

Divya Goyal

Divya Goyal is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Punjab. Her interest lies in exploring both news and feature stories, with an effort to reflect human interest at the heart of each piece. She writes on gender issues, education, politics, Sikh diaspora, heritage, the Partition among other subjects. She has also extensively covered issues of minority communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She also explores the legacy of India's partition and distinct stories from both West and East Punjab. She is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, the most revered government institute for media studies in India, from where she pursued English Journalism (Print). Her research work on “Role of micro-blogging platform Twitter in content generation in newspapers” had won accolades at IIMC. She had started her career in print journalism with Hindustan Times before switching to The Indian Express in 2012. Her investigative report in 2019 on gender disparity while treating women drug addicts in Punjab won her the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2020. She won another Laadli for her ground report on the struggle of two girls who ride a boat to reach their school in the border village of Punjab. ... Read More

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