Photo: Jaypee / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was kept waiting for about three hours at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on his return from Paris and then handed a ₹50,000 challan, the Aam Aadmi Party has alleged, turning a customs check into a fresh flashpoint between the Punjab government and the Centre.
What AAP says happened
The allegation came from Baltej Pannu, the party’s Punjab media in-charge, in a video he posted on X on October 20. He said Mann was held at the airport at night, with officials first telling him that his luggage was still arriving and then that it was still being checked. According to Pannu, once Mann had finally loaded his bags into his car and was about to leave, officials hurried after him, said they were under “tremendous pressure from above” and issued the ₹50,000 challan.
Pannu described the episode as deliberate humiliation and tied it to what he called repeated hurdles placed in the way of Mann’s foreign visits. He also pointed to the alleged withholding of Punjab’s funds and the handling of the farmers’ protest. AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj joined in on X, writing: “This arrogance of Centre must end. Even Ravan’s arrogance ended on Dussehra.”
The customs version
Customs officials have offered a different account, so far through comments to the media rather than a formal statement. Senior officials said the checks were part of routine screening driven by intelligence and risk profiling, carried out on all flights, and were not aimed at the chief minister. “It was not a big issue. Nothing was found,” one official was quoted as saying, adding that Mann had cooperated.
Separately, sources in the customs department at the airport said a duty of about ₹50,000 was levied because some items in the luggage of Mann and the staff travelling with him had not been declared. They said the staff’s bags were checked as well and that the total covered both.
Other parties have weighed in too. Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia claimed that customs officers stopped Mann and his wife, Gurpreet Kaur, over suspected excess luggage or money beyond permitted limits, questioned them, and let them go in view of his office. Congress leader Udit Raj said a proper explanation should be given for why Mann was held.
Why the Paris trip was already contested
Mann travelled to France for SIAL Paris, a major international food exhibition running from October 17 to 21, where India is a partner country this year. On October 18 he opened a stall of Markfed, Punjab’s cooperative marketing federation, and launched two products under its Sohna brand.
The trip almost did not happen. The Centre had refused political clearance for the visit, but the Punjab and Haryana High Court set that decision aside, allowed him to travel and directed that due protocol be followed. AAP says this was at least the fourth time Mann had been stopped from going abroad, and it has complained that India’s Consul General in Paris did not meet him during the visit.
What happens next
The central issue now is whether the ₹50,000 was a routine duty on undeclared goods, as customs sources suggest, or a penalty applied under pressure, as AAP alleges. Details of the items said to be undeclared have not been made public. With the clearance dispute already tested in court, the airport episode is likely to add to the running friction between the AAP government in Punjab and the BJP-led Centre.
