Haryana minister Anil Vij, who was recently involved in a spat with a woman IPS officer, today received a 'life threat', but the outspoken BJP leader remained unfazed saying he cared little about such threats.
When mediapersons asked Vij about a person sending him a threatening message on Twitter over his spat with Superintendent of Police (Fatehabad) Sangeeta Kalia, the Minister said he got to know about it through the media only.
"I have learnt about this through the media. ...I don't care about such threats. No threat can stop me from doing what is right," he told reporters.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Ambala Surender Pal Singh said the matter had come to the notice of the police.
"The police would take the required precautionary measures in this regard and Anil Vij would be provided additional security if required," he said.
Meanwhile, in his brief interaction with reporters at Ambala railway station while on his way to Delhi today, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said in Fatehabad, not even a single issue has been neglected including drug mafia.
"Many effective measures are being taken against drug and liquor mafia to save our younger generation from its adverse effects," he added.
Notably, Congress had slammed Anil Vij over transfer of Kalia over a spat between the two. The minister had on last Thursday stormed out of a meeting of the District Grievances and Public Relations Committee after the police officer refused to follow his order to leave the venue following heated exchanges between them.
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Former Haryana Congress President and senior leader Phool Chand Mullana today submitted a memorandum to the state governor demanding Vij's removal for allegedly using uncivilised language against the woman officer.
"Ever since the BJP government has come to power in Haryana, atrocities against Dalits are on the increase. Hardly a day passes when one does not get to hear about atrocities against Dalits in Haryana, including the recent incident of burning alive of two children in Sunped in Faridabad.
"Another incident in which a Dalit boy died due to alleged police torture in Gohana is still fresh in everyone's memories," Mullana told reporters after submitting the memorandum to the Governor.
He said incidents of rape against Dalit women are also common now.
"While all these things were happening, now this incident came to fore in which a Dalit lady IPS officer was badly treated by a senior Haryana Minister.
"Asking a lady officer to get out of the meeting and virtually threaten her in the presence of officials of civil and police administration and members of the public, besides others, is highly condemnable," Mullana said.
The Congress leader demanded that Vij should resign and if he fails to do so on his own then he should be sacked.
"These things cannot be tolerated. Insulting a woman IPS officer, who is also from the Dalit community, is just too much," he said, adding that the Khattar government was "insensitive" towards Dalits.
He also hit out at the BJP government in the state, saying it had scrapped the State Commission for Scheduled Castes, which was constituted by previous Congress government.
"The Commission was constituted to redress grievances of the Dalit community, but the present government scrapped it," he said.
Notably, the panel was headed by Mullana, a loyalist of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
