Chandigarh: The scandal surrounding Punjab Police DIG Harcharan Singh Bhullar has exploded further — the whistle-blower who helped the CBI trap the senior IPS officer now fears for his life.
Complainant Akash Batta has approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court, alleging that he and his family — including his wife and three minor children — are under constant threat from DIG Bhullar and his personal aides. Batta warned that any “untoward incident” could happen at any time.
In his plea, Batta accused the DIG of using his influence in the Punjab Police to intimidate him. “There is every possibility that I may be falsely implicated in a fabricated case or eliminated in a staged accident,” his petition states, adding that he no longer feels safe in Punjab.
Taking serious note of the complaint, Justice Aman Chaudhary has ordered the Punjab government and the CBI to conduct an immediate threat assessment and, if necessary, provide protection to the petitioner and his family. Batta has sought security from central forces, citing fears of bias and influence within the state police.
The petition comes just a day after the CBI arrested DIG Bhullar, a 2009-batch IPS officer posted as DIG, Rupnagar (Ropar) Range, on charges of demanding and accepting a bribe of ₹8 lakh. The arrest was made after a written complaint from Batta, who alleged that the officer sought money through a private middleman to “settle” an FIR registered against him at Sirhind police station in 2023 and to shield his scrap business from police action.
Following Bhullar’s arrest, CBI sleuths raided multiple premises linked to the officer, recovering huge amounts of cash, around 1.5 kilograms of gold and silver jewellery, and property documents worth crores.
The sensational case has sent tremors through the Punjab Police hierarchy and triggered widespread outrage. Questions are now being raised over how a senior IPS officer could operate such a nexus from within the system and whether more officials were complicit.
As the High Court steps in to safeguard the complainant, all eyes are now on the CBI investigation, which could unravel one of the biggest corruption and intimidation scandals in the state’s police force in recent years.
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