Now from inside Patiala jail, an ongoing Navjot Singh Sidhu saga

While Ashu is imprisoned in an alleged foodgrains tender scam, Sidhu is a witness in another case filed against Ashu in a local Ludhiana court, by dismissed cop Balwinder Singh Sekhon. The former police official has alleged that Ashu had harassed and intimidated him during his inquiry into the CLU (change of land use) scam of Ludhiana.

Ashu is accused of helping a private builder get a CLU certificate, on the basis of forged documents, for a residential flat project worth over Rs 70 crore, as part of the Amarinder Singh Cabinet. Sidhu was the Local Bodies Minister at the time, and had ordered the probe. Sekhon had submitted a report to Sidhu’s office in 2019 – he claims it indicted Ashu and others in the alleged scam. The file has now gone “missing” from the Local Bodies Department.

Sidhu was summoned as a witness after Sekhon told the court that he has a photocopy of the inquiry report, and Sidhu could prove its authenticity.

However, the former minister, known for his unpredictability, has refused to physically appear. While at first, he submitted via his counsel that he should not be summoned as a witness at all, he later said he was ready to appear via video-conferencing, but only if the security cover, equivalent to the Z+ category cover he was provided earlier, was restored, considering a “threat to [his] life”.

From rapper Sidhu Moosewala’s murder and a blast at the Ludhiana court, Sidhu has cited several reasons in his multiple applications to the court and the Patiala jail superintendent. Three such applications by him to the local court, a revision petition in the session court, and another plea in the High Court, have been dismissed.

On Wednesday, his counsel Manjit Singh Khaira said the High Court had finally allowed Sidhu’s fresh plea to appear in the Ludhiana court via video-conferencing on October 28.

In one of his applications to the jail superintendent, Sidhu wrote that his Z+ security cover was withdrawn the day he was imprisoned. “… we must learn our lessons from the Sidhu Moosewala case.. Better prevent and prepare than repent and repair…”, he wrote. “I will never risk my life until the said security is restored… to facilitate the court I am ready to appear via video-conferencing….”

In another application to the jail superintendent, he repeated his concerns over security. “Nobody seems to take responsibility… everybody passes the buck…,” Sidhu wrote, demanding security for a court visit.

He further wrote that he has never refused to appear as a witness in court. “… but I am preventing rather than repenting… To go unannounced in the open court where (a) bomb blast took place is a high risk… Will somebody take the responsibility?”

On September 19, dismissing Sidhu’s applications citing security threat, the Ludhiana court said: “Security threat argument is devoid of any merit because if he can visit PGI for his treatment without any Z+ security cover, then he can also appear in court….”

On October 20, a day before the last hearing, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who had earned Sidhu’s praise for being a “receptive, no arrogance CM”, stepped in. “Navjot Singh Sidhu ji will appear as a witness in the case in a court of Ludhiana tomorrow. Orders have been issued to provide him adequate security,” Mann tweeted.

However, on October 21, Sidhu again skipped the hearing after being declared “unwell” by jail doctors.

Incidentally, there is little love lost between Sidhu and Ashu. After the alleged CLU scam broke in 2019, Sidhu had quipped: “Mantri ho ya santri, sabko thokunga (Be it a minister or a guard, I won’t spare anyone).” Then CM Amarinder Singh had defended Ashu in the Assembly, and said he won’t take any arbitrary action against the minister without evidence.

Sekhon was soon after dismissed as DSP for allegedly sending abusive texts to Ashu. In the Assembly polls this year, the former cop contested against both Sidhu from Amritsar East, and Ashu from Ludhiana West — “not to win, but to expose the corrupt ministers”. In the AAP sweep of the elections, both Sidhu and Ashu had lost.

Regardless of what’s happening outside the jail, Ashu and Sidhu rarely meet or come face to face inside the prison, said a senior official of the Patiala jail. “They are lodged in different cells that are quite far apart. They hardly talk to each other.”