In what could spark off yet another round of confrontation between the Bhagwant Mann government and the opposition in Punjab, the Vigilance Bureau has issued summons to the Managing Editor of a major regional newspaper group in connection with the funds used for Jang-e-Azadi memorial constructed during the tenure of the Shorimani Akali Dal government.

The Vigilance Bureau has asked Barjinder Singh Hamdard, Managing Editor of the Ajit newspaper, to appear before it at its Jalandhar office on May 29.

In 2012, then chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had entrusted Hamdard with concept designing and construction work for the memorial, which was built on 25 acres of land at a cost of over Rs 300 crore. Hamdard remained Member Secretary of the memorial for 11 years and quit on April 10 this year.

The project’s former CEO Vinay Bublani and secretary Lakhwinder Johal have already been quizzed by the Vigilance Bureau.

Expressing solidarity with Hamdard, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal said the latest summons in the case was an attack on freedom of press and “totally unacceptable in a democracy”.

In a statement, the SAD president said Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann first stopped giving government advertisements to the Ajit newspaper.

“Then it (the government) started intimidating functionaries of the Ajit, and now it has stooped to persecuting its managing editor. This is the height of vendetta politics and is totally unacceptable in a democracy,” he said.

Hamdard had recently met Punjab Governor Bhanwarilal Purohit, accusing the Mann government of witch-hunt and curbing the editorial freedom of the newspaper. The government has denied the allegations and claimed that it was acting as per the law in a corruption case.