Punjab Bureau of Surveillance Summons Managing Editor of Ajit Newspaper in Jang-e-Azadi Memorial Inquiry

In what could spark another round of confrontation between the Bhagwant Mann government and the opposition in Punjab, the Bureau of Surveillance issued a summons to the managing editor of a major regional newspaper group in connection with funds used for Jang-Jang’s memorial. e-Azadi. Built during the tenure of the Shorimani Akali Dal government.

The Bureau of Surveillance has asked Barjinder Singh Hamdard, Managing Editor of the ajit newspaper, to appear before him at his Jalandhar office on 29 May.

In 2012, then-Prime Minister Parkash Singh Badal had entrusted Hamdard with the conceptual design and construction work for the monument, which was built on 25 acres of land at a cost of over Rs 300 crore. Hamdard remained the memorial’s member clerk for 11 years, resigning on April 10 of this year.

The former CEO of the project, Vinay Bublani, and the secretary, Lakhwinder Johal, have already been questioned by the Vigilance Bureau.

Expressing his solidarity with Hamdard, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal said the latest summons in the case was an attack on press freedom and “totally unacceptable in a democracy.”

In a statement, the SAD chairman said that Prime Minister Bhagwant Mann first stopped giving government announcements to the ajit newspaper.

“Then (the government) began to intimidate the officials of the ajit, and now he has stooped to persecuting his editor-in-chief. This is the height of vendetta politics and is totally unacceptable in a democracy,” he said.

Hamdard had recently met with Punjab Governor Bhanwarilal Purohit, accusing the Mann government of witch-hunting and restricting the newspaper’s editorial freedom. The government has denied the accusations and said it was acting within the law in a corruption case.