Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu’s wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu hit back at Captain Amarinder Singh over his friendship with Pakistani journalist Aroosa Alam, alleging that postings in Punjab police never happened without paying off Alam.

“Not a single posting in the police department in Punjab happened without a gift or payment to Aroosa Alam,” Sidhu said on Saturday.

“The PM and Union home minister know everything. They need to take action on it,” she added, reported ANI.

The accusation comes a day after deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said Aroosa Alam’s ISI links need to be probed.

“Captain Amarinder Singh is now saying that there is a threat from ISI. We will look into the woman’s connection with it. Captain kept raising the issue of drones coming from Pakistan for last 4-5 years,” Randhawa said, reported ANI. “Captain first raised this issue and later got BSF deployed in Punjab. We will ask the DGP to look into this matter,” he added.

Singh had responded to Randhawa’s claims, slamming what he called “personal attacks” and insisting the allegations against him were “baseless”.

He released a statement and posed a question to Randhawa through his media advisor Raveen Thukral on Twitter.

“You were a minister in my cabinet. Never heard you complain about Aroosa Alam. And she had been coming for 16 years with due GOI clearance. Or are you alleging that both NDA and Congress-led UPA governments in this period connived with Pak ISI?” Singh asked Randhawa.

“What I am worried about is that instead of focusing on maintaining law & order at a time when terror threat is high and festivals are around the corner, you’ve put DGP Punjab Police on a baseless investigation at the cost of Punjab’s safety,” his statement said.

Alam, a Pakistani defence journalist and daughter of Pakistan politician Aqleem Akhtar, met Singh for the first time since 2004 during the latter’s visit to Pakistan, and according to her, the two have remained platonic friends since then.