Law and order has collapsed under Bhagwant Mann, says Punjab BJP chief Kewal Singh Dhillon

Chandigarh. A young footballer found dead with a plastic sack stuffed into his mouth, gunmen spraying bullets at a dairy over extortion money, and a former senior officer arrested in a crore-rupee mining case. Punjab BJP president Kewal Singh Dhillon on Saturday said these three cases, all reported within 24 hours, prove that crime and corruption are running unchecked under the Bhagwant Mann government.

Calling it a “total collapse of law and governance”, Dhillon demanded that Mann step down as home minister at once. He said the AAP government had “forfeited every moral right to govern”.

The killing of 20-year-old footballer Karanvir Singh, alias Gopi, of Latala village in Ludhiana drew his strongest reaction. The promising player’s body was found near the village cremation ground. Dhillon demanded strict punishment for all the culprits, fast-track justice and fair compensation for the family. He said violent crime now went unchecked even in rural Punjab.

In Bathinda’s Bhagta Bhai Ka, two armed shooters looted a motorcycle and fired at a dairy because the owner had not paid extortion money. Dhillon said gangsters were running a parallel extortion economy across Punjab while the chief minister was busy with political tours outside the state.

In Pathankot, the Enforcement Directorate has arrested a former additional deputy commissioner and a mining businessman in a case of illegal mining and fraudulent land transfers. The agency recovered ₹1.75 crore in cash and froze 31 bank accounts. Dhillon said the case exposed the government’s tall claims of wiping out the mining mafia, and sought an independent probe into the political patronage behind the nexus.

“Day after day, the same grim script repeats itself across Punjab, yet the Bhagwant Mann government remains a mute spectator,” Dhillon said.

“Whether it is the blood of our young athletes spilling on village roads, traders facing bullets for refusing ransom, or senior administrative officers colluding with the mining mafia to loot crores, this regime has completely failed to stop the rot,” he added.

Dhillon said the three cases were not isolated shocks but the latest in an unbroken chain of targeted killings, ransom firings and organised loot that had hit Punjab week after week. Punjab’s youth, traders and natural resources were all unsafe under AAP rule, he said, as he demanded a tough crackdown on extortion gangs.