Punjab AAP MLA puts Mann govt in dock over ‘liquor mafia’: Who is Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh?

“Governments change, but the mafia remains the same,” said Singh on March 14. “I asked (Punjab Assembly) Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan to hold a debate on mafia influence. Last year, Sangrur saw a hooch tragedy. In 2020, more than 100 people lost their lives in Majha after consuming illicit liquor. But I was not even provided with the names of the accused and the status of the investigation of these incidents.”

He added that he had all the “information” about the liquor mafia operating in the state.

Stint as IPS officer

Singh is originally from Bihar and is a 1998-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer.

He was the Inspector General of Police in Punjab between August 2016 and April 2021, working under then chief ministers like Parkash Singh Badal and Captain Amarinder Singh.

Singh took charge as the IG at a time of public disquiet over the sacrilege cases starting June 2015, when the Guru Granth Sahib was allegedly desecrated in the Faridkot district. In October of the same year, the police fired at protesting crowds in Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan, killing two people. Singh was part of the Special Investigating Team (SIT) that probed the police firings.

In April 2021, the Punjab High Court quashed the probe reports submitted by police in two FIRs registered in connection with 2015 Kotkapura violence. Singh resigned immediately after this, and joined the AAP in June 2021.

Addressing the media after his resignation, Singh made a statement that would put a lot of heat on the then Amarinder Singh-led Congress government. “I was watching the manner in which the SIT report got quashed (by the HC). Actually, the accused in the Guru Granth Sahib sacrilege case were directing the Punjab government. The accused were making all the decisions. So, a political revolution is necessary in the state,” he had then claimed.

For the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP, which was looking to enter Punjab politics, Singh was a key face who had taken on the Congress government and had a growing base among the Sikh community despite not hailing from the state.

The AAP put up his posters in different parts of the state after he joined the party in the run-up to the February 2022 state Assembly elections.

Singh’s popularity paid off as he won the Amritsar North seat as a debutant by about 29,000 votes, defeating the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Congress candidates.

While there was then speculation that he would be given a Cabinet berth, Singh was not given any important role in the Bhagwant Mann government.

Pushed to the corner in the AAP structure with no significant position, Singh had been speaking out against his party-led government for some time now.

During the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, while campaigning for the AAP’s Amritsar candidate and minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, the former IPS officer said he had been “sidelined” within the party.

He has also repeatedly claimed that CM Mann has failed to deliver justice in the sacrilege cases.

During the 2024 Lok Sabha poll campaign, Singh even alleged that his phone was “tapped” by the Punjab government and that his WhatsApp account was “blocked” by the government.

In the same campaign, Singh said his “job” was “to raise issues”. “This is why I have been made an MLA. My statements are not attacks but efforts to solve the problem before everything gets out of our hands,” he said.

He has maintained that his remarks were not reflective of his “loyalty” to the party.

In February, Singh said the AAP government’s “poor governance” in Punjab was the reason for the party’s defeat in the Delhi Assembly polls. He has also called for the removal of Mann as the CM.