Amritsar, March 23 -- Former Punjab minister Laljit Singh Bhullar and his father were among three booked on charges of abetment of suicide following the death of a state warehousing corporation official in Amritsar, police said on Sunday. The development comes a day after Bhullar resigned from his post as transport and jails minister in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government. He stepped down after chief minister Bhagwant Mann sought his resignation, with Bhullar saying he took the decision to facilitate a fair inquiry into the case. In a rare move, Opposition Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members held a joint protest in Chandigarh to demand Bhullar's arrest. Police used water cannons to disperse the protesters as they tried to force their way through barricades to 'gherao' the residence of CM Mann. On Friday, a district manager of the Punjab State Warehousing Corporation (PSWC) allegedly died by suicide after consuming a poisonous substance at his residence in Amritsar. Prior to his death, a video of the official surfaced on social media, in which he claimed he had taken the step out of fear of Bhullar. Based on a complaint filed by the deceased's wife on Saturday, a case was lodged at the Ranjit Avenue police station against the former minister, his father Sukhdev Singh Bhullar, and his personal assistant PA Dilbag Singh. The three accused have been booked under sections 109 (abetment of suicide), 351(3) (criminal intimidation by treating to cause death or grievous hurt) and 3(5) (common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), said Gurpreet Singh Bhullar, Amritsar commissioner of police. In her complaint, the deceased's wife said that the former minister had applied for tenders floated by the PSWC for the construction of new godowns under the name of his father. "He was consistently pressurising my husband to favour his father in the tendering process. He was saying that tenders must get nod in favour of his father at every cost. My husband told me in this regard many times," the wife said in the complaint (seen by HT). "Bhullar, his father and PA Dilbag Singh alias Bagha were issuing threats to my husband that if the tenders are not allotted to them, my children will have to pay the price." After the tenders were not allotted to Bhullar's father, the complaint said, the former minister began "harassing and humiliating" the official. "My husband said that Bhullar said that either he will get him killed or he should kill himself by consuming poison," she said. On March 13, the wife said, the AAP leader summoned the official to his residence. "As my husband entered the house, they started beating my husband," the complaint, Then, at gunpoint, they forcibly made a video of my husband and made him read a script given by them. Thus, they then recorded false statement of my husband, that he allotted the tenders to another party by taking Rs.10 lakh." Leader of Opposition in the Punjab assembly Partap Singh Bajwa, Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar, along with SAD leaders Bikram Singh Majithia and Daljit Singh Cheema, were among the top Opposition leaders who took part in the Chandigarh protest. They were all detained by the police and later released. "We are united in this fight for justice and accountability. The Congress will continue this struggle with unwavering resolve until justice is delivered to the grieved family," Bajwa said. "We want Bhullar's immediate arrest and a free and fair probe," said Majithia. The CM, meanwhile, asserted that his government has zero tolerance for corruption, further noting that the law is taking its course. "We have zero tolerance for corruption, and it's not our first case. Our party has taken such action before, even in Delhi. So, if someone does something wrong and forces someone to take their own life, it's a matter of investigation," he said....