In a huge security breach unidentified miscreants ransacked and burgled former Punjab finance minister Manpreet Badal’s office in the heavily guarded state civil secretariat building at Chandigarh past midnight on Friday.
While chief minister Parkash Singh Badal immediately ordered chief secretary Subodh C. Agarwal to conduct an inquiry into the unprecedented break-in into the fifth floor ministerial chambers despite the presence of armed Central Industrial Security Force and Punjab police guards, the incident is raising many eyebrows coming just a day after Mr Manpreet Badal quit amidst raging controversy.
According to sources, the intruders appear to have searched the premises for official files and other documents, besides tampering with the former minister’s personal computer before ransacking the place.
Nervous security officials, who did not wish to be named, said, “This is evidently the handiwork of people with official access to the secretariat. There could simply be no way that any outsiders could get in and flee without detection.” One official pointed out that security measures at the Punjab Secretariat are now even stricter that those introduced in the wake of former chief minister Beant Singh’s assassination in 1995.
“This has to be an insider or someone the guards recognise and did not have the courage to challenge,” a senior Punjab police officer told this newspaper on Saturday.
Questions are also being asked about chief minister Badal’s decision to seek an administrative probe into what is evidently a criminal act and a matter for the local police.
“Someone, somewhere obviously does not want to involve the Chandigarh cops who are not under the administrative control of Punjab but that of the union home ministry,” an officer said.
Meanwhile, in what may be certain trouble for the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal, thousands of enthusiastic supporters greeted Mr Manpreet Badal at a public rally in the Badal family’s own bastion of Giddarbaha in south-western Punjab.
Addressing a swell of supporters who had shown up despite his cousin and deputy CM Sukhbir Badal’s reported attempts to discourage them including the shifting of key civil and police officials known to be loyal to the former finance minister, Mr Manpreet Badal assured them that he would respect their sentiments and not quit the Akali Dal or jeopardise his membership of the Vidhan Sabha.
“A ministry is granted by a chief minister which one enjoys till the CM likes your face but the people elect you as their MLA. I am here to ask you. Should I resign or continue as your MLA?” he earlier asked of his eager listeners. And their collective, booming response: “Nahin (No)!”
Playing to the gallery with his highly emotional speech, Mr Manpreet Badal said his unceremonious ouster from the Cabinet was an attempt at “politically murdering” him.