Punjab now India’s crime capital, police stations hide behind tin walls: Tarun Chugh

BJP Rajya Sabha MP Tarun Chugh on Thursday accused the Bhagwant Mann government of losing its grip on Punjab. He said grenade attacks on 23 police stations have pushed the force to fence its own buildings with tin sheets and mesh.

“Today, Punjab has become the crime capital of India,” Chugh, the BJP’s national general secretary, told reporters in Delhi. He said gangsters, the drug mafia and extortion gangs were running the state while the police stood by, unable to act.

Police stations turned into bunkers

Chugh painted a picture of police stations cut off from the people they guard. “In every village, walls are being put up around police stations, tin walls and mesh walls, so that no one can throw a grenade inside,” he said. “This shows Punjab Police stations are working in an atmosphere of fear.”

An ordinary citizen, he said, feels safe because of two things: the uniform and the police station. “The khaki uniform and police stations, which are supposed to guarantee public safety, are themselves under fear.”

He also referred to the rocket launcher strike on the Punjab Police headquarters. That was the May 2022 RPG attack on the police intelligence wing headquarters in Mohali.

Chugh’s count of police stations attacked has gone up by one since September 18. On that day, after ASI Harjit Singh was shot dead on duty in Amritsar, he had put the figure at 22. Police records cited in media reports show more than 30 grenade attacks in Punjab since October 2024, many on police posts in border districts. Punjab Police has blamed Pakistan’s ISI-backed modules working with local gangsters, and has made arrests in several cases.

The uniform claim

Chugh said senior officers had issued written directions telling personnel not to travel home in uniform. Punjab Police has denied this. On September 22, it said neither its headquarters nor any office under it had issued such an advisory. It called the messages circulating on social media fake.

‘Surrendered to the mafia’

Chugh hit out at Mann directly, pointing out that the Chief Minister also holds the Home portfolio. “The Chief Minister, who is also the Home Minister, is not concerned about the state,” he said.

“The Punjab government has surrendered to the mafia. Today, Punjab is completely under the control of the drug mafia,” he said. Drugs, he alleged, were being sold “in every street, every neighbourhood and every village.”

He took an apparent swipe at the government’s anti-drug drive, Yudh Nashian Virudh. “Until recently, Bhagwant Mann used to say he had fought three battles. But after every battle, the supply chain grew.”

Killings and extortion

Chugh alleged that murders were happening daily and people were paying off extortion gangs. “People are being attacked, and out of fear, they are paying extortion money. In effect, the police system in the state has collapsed,” he said.

He blamed political interference. “The once-valiant Punjab Police has been rendered paralysed due to pressure from the Aam Aadmi Party’s officials, MLAs and ministers. Gangsters are operating with complete impunity.”

With Assembly elections due in early 2027, law and order has become a key line of attack for the BJP, Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal against the AAP government.