Punjab govt to restore security to at-risk individuals

Chandigarh: Punjab’s AAP government informed the Punjab and Haryana high court that the withdrawal of state security to 434 at-risk individuals, including slain singer-rapper Sidhu Moosewala, was “transitory” and that guards assigned to all such people would be restored by June 7.
The formal statement in the HC was in response to a petition by former deputy CM Om Prakash Soni, questioning the Bhagwant Mann led government's decision to revoke his security. Moosewala was fatally shot while out in his vehicle along with a friend in his native village in Mansa district on May 29, a day after his security was withdrawn.
Blamed by many for Moosewala's murder, the state government maintained in court that security cover to the 400-odd "protectees" had been temporarily withdrawn because resources needed to be diverted as part of law-and-order requirements on the anniversary of Operation Blue Star. Security was to be automatically restored on June 7, it said.
A sealed report on the controversy was submitted to the bench of Justice Raj Mohan Singh by the government’s law officer, advocate Gaurav Garg Dhuriwala. The court also wanted to know why the government made public the identities of the protectees who were suddenly left without state security.