Demanding Punjab Cabinet Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa’s immediate dismissal, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday said that the racket involving control of Kabaddi tournaments through drug money by notorious gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria from prison could not be probed as long as he continued to receive the Jail Minister’s patronage.

SAD’s senior leader and the former minister Bikram Singh Majithia said that it was shocking that the North India Circle Style Kabaddi Federation had come forward to disclose how Jaggu Bhagwanpuria was controlling Kabaddi tournaments with the help of drug money by intimidating and threatening genuine organizers through his associates in Australia and New Zealand.

“The Federation has, in a letter to the State DGP, given telephone numbers of Bhagwanpuria’s associates and even stressed that these associates including Kawal Singh of Sukha Raju village in Gurdaspur had political backing,” he said.

He said the State DGP should look into this unprofessional conduct and take action in the matter.

Majithia said that the expose by the Kabaddi Federation had lent further weight to the assertion made by the SAD and civil society that the Minister-gangster nexus was responsible for the gruesome murder of former Akali Sarpanch Dalbir Singh Dhilwan.

The former minister said that despite all this and even assertions by top police officers that Jaggu Bhagwanpuria was running an extortion racket from jail, attempts were still being made to cover up the matter and give a clean chit to the dreaded gangster as well as Jails Minister Sukhjinder Randhawa.

He said that it was shocking that within hours of SAD legislators meeting the State DGP and submitting documentary evidence about threats being issued by Bhagwanpuria from jail, Inspector General of Police Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh issued a statement to give a clean chit to the ‘A’ category gangster.