Eight days into police custody, the Amritsar police have yet to recover the mobile phone and CCTV DVR hard disk from the residence of former Punjab minister Laljit Singh Bhullar.Bhullar, along with his father Sukhdev Singh and personal assistant Dilbagh Singh, was booked in connection with the alleged suicide of Punjab Warehousing Corporation (PWC) official Gagandeep Singh Randhawa.An FIR was registered against them on charges of abetment to suicide and criminal intimidation on the night of March 21, following sustained pressure from opposition parties, whose members had staged a protest at the police station demanding action.Related news: Punjab official suicide: Why Laljit Bhullar’s mobile, DVR hard disk are important?The former minister and Patti MLA was arrested from Mandi Gobindgarh on March 23. His father and personal assistant remain absconding.Highly placed police sources said the missing mobile phone and DVR hard disk are crucial to strengthening the case.Before taking the extreme step, Randhawa recorded a short video in which he accused Bhullar of harassment and humiliation that drove him to suicide. While the deceased’s family handed over his mobile phone to the police, Bhullar’s device remains untraced. He has told investigators that he lost it. The DVR hard disk containing CCTV footage from his residence was also found missing during the police search.“The mobile phone and DVR hard disk are key to corroborating allegations of sustained pressure, threatening calls, or messages from Bhullar or his aides, as claimed by the family and reflected in the deceased’s video and phone data,” said a police official privy to the investigation.Digital records, including call logs, WhatsApp and SMS conversations, and location data, could directly link the accused to the victim and help establish the sequence of events leading up to the suicide, the officer added.Bhullar’s phone is particularly important as it could reveal the “other side” of the communication trail — objective digital proof of any threats, coercion, or meetings — thereby strengthening the case of abetment and intimidation beyond the victim’s video statement, said human rights activist and advocate Sarabjit Singh.Following Bhullar’s arrest, police sought his remand specifically to recover the missing devices. They later requested a five-day extension, though the court granted only three days.Investigators have also learned that Bhullar allegedly sent a video of Randhawa, purportedly confessing to accepting money from another group for issuing tenders, to PWC Managing Director Gautam Jain from his mobile phone.The DVR hard disk could confirm Randhawa’s presence at Bhullar’s residence on March 13, when he was allegedly summoned, physically assaulted, and humiliated.Officials warned that failure to produce these key electronic devices could further compound Bhullar’s legal troubles, with the possible addition of Section 238 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which pertains to causing disappearance of evidence or providing false information.