Congress leader Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Monday said he will file a defamation case against Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for allegedly indulging in his character assassination.

Randhawa slammed Mann for accusing him of extending largesse to gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari.

Mann on Sunday said he would recover the amount of Rs 55 lakh spent on the cosy stay of Ansari in the Rupnagar jail during the previous Congress government in the state from former chief minister Amarinder Singh and then jail minister Randhawa.

Mann said if Singh, who is now a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, and Randhawa, a Congress MLA, do not give the money, then their pension and other benefits will be stopped.

Responding to Mann's charge, Randhawa alleged that the chief minister has a habit of indulging in character assassination.

"I will file a defamation case.... I will never tolerate humiliation," the Congress leader told reporters here.

He also challenged the chief minister to issue a recovery notice to him with regard to the Ansari matter.

Ansari was in the Rupnagar jail from January 2019 to April 2021 in an extortion case registered in Mohali, before the Supreme Court directed the Punjab government to give the gangster-turned-politician's custody to the Uttar Pradesh Police.

The apex court had also noted that the custody was being denied to the Uttar Pradesh Police on trivial grounds under the guise of medical issues. Ansari was subsequently moved to a jail in Banda in Uttar Pradesh.

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