CHANDIGARH: Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday virtually accused the Punjab police of hiding Honeypreet Insan for nearly 40 days before her arrest on October 3. “Dal mein kuch kala to hai (there is something fishy),“ he told reporters while referring to Honeypreet 's hideouts in Punjab.“Haryana police teams are in Punjab to get more details and the truth would be out once her interrogation is completed,“ he added.

This triggered an angry reaction from Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh who advised Khattar to “refrain from such fabrications“ to shield his own government's failures . He accused Haryana of allowing thousands of dera followers gather in Panchkula ahead of Gurmeet Ram Rahim 's conviction which led to widespread violence and the death of 36 people on August 25.

Khattar said that Punjab police should have shared information about Honeypreet with Haryana police . “As of now, I can't say anything on the issue but the role of Punjab police is suspicious,“ he added. He was talking to reporters outside the Haryana police headquarters in Panchkula, where he attended a meeting of police commissioners and SPs on law and order in Haryana.

Amarinder reacted by alleging that some senior Haryana police officers had known of Honeypreet's whereabouts for several days but had failed to arrest her. Amarinder said, “Instead of probing his own officials' role in the entire affair, Khattar is simply trying to shift focus to Punjab as he had done in the wake of the Panchkula violence.“

He also trashed charges that the Punjab police failed to give intelligence inputs on Honeypreet to Haryana. “Punjab police had been giving regular inputs to their counterparts in Haryana even before the Panchkula court hearing,“ he claimed, adding that the Haryana government and police had failed to take cognizance or act on the information.

The Punjab CM said his police had not been pursuing Honeypreet since she was not wanted in any case in the state.

