CHANDIGARH, Mar 21:
Punjab Cabinet Minister Laljit Singh Bhullar tendered his resignation from the state Cabinet today after Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann asked him to step down amid allegation of abetment of suicide of an official of the state warehousing corporation in Amritsar.
Bhullar, the MLA from Patti in Tarn Taran, rejected the allegation as baseless.
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Mann said that he has directed the chief secretary to conduct a probe into the matter.
He said the minister was asked to step down for the sake of a fair probe.
“What are the reasons behind it? It is a matter of probe. Before conducting the probe, we took resignation from our cabinet minister so that no one could influence the probe or could put any pressure,” Mann said, responding to reporters’ query on Bhullar’s resignation.
Mann said no negligence will be tolerated in the matter, and Bhullar’s portfolios of transport and prisons will be allocated to some other minister.
On Saturday, a video surfaced on social media in which Gagandeep Singh Randhawa, the deceased manager, was heard saying that he had consumed some poisonous substance and accused Laljit Singh Bhullar of harassment.
Randhawa was also holding the additional charge of Patti.
In a Facebook post, Bhullar said his party always stands with the truth, so he wanted allegations against him to be investigated properly.
“Until this investigation is completed, I request the party and our chief minister to accept my resignation from the minister’s post. I am sending my resignation to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann so that this matter can be investigated properly,” he said. (PTI)
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