The Bharatiya Janta Party on Thursday stepped up its attack on the Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab, alleging that a network of middlemen was being used to broker the withdrawal or dilution of rape cases for money, and sought an independent probe into what it described as a “Rs 5-crore corruption syndicate” allegedly involving Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s office and his wife, Dr Gurpreet Kaur Mann.BJP spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari, addressing a press conference, played purported audio recordings which he claimed showed a middleman discussing a rape case with a relative of an accused and referring to the Chief Minister and his office. He further claimed that a second recording referred to an amount being “fixed”, while another allegedly discussed distribution of the money among several people.The allegations could not be independently verified from the recordings presented at the press conference. Bhandari did not provide evidence establishing that the voices belonged to the persons he named or that any money had actually been paid.The allegations, however, come against the backdrop of an ongoing inquiry ordered by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) into a complaint concerning an alleged demand of Rs 5 crore to suppress a rape case involving the wife of the Punjab Chief Minister.The NHRC has directed the Punjab Chief Secretary and Director General of Police to inquire into the allegations and submit an action-taken report within two weeks. It has also forwarded the matter to the Women Safety Division of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. The commission said the allegations, if established, could raise concerns relating to the victim’s dignity, safety, fair investigation and access to justice.Dr Gurpreet Kaur Mann, meanwhile, has issued a legal notice to retired Punjab judge Ranjit Singh, whose alleged public statements formed the basis of the complaint cited before the NHRC, according to the Chief Minister’s Office.Bhandari sought to draw a further connection between the allegations and the arrest and subsequent release on bail of a rape accused in a case registered as FIR No. 77 at the Civil Lines police station. He alleged that the accused was arrested on May 13 and released on May 20, and questioned whether the investigation had been weakened to facilitate the release.He also referred to a photograph which he claimed showed the Chief Minister’s wife with the alleged middleman around the time of the case. The circumstances and relevance of the photograph were not independently established at the press conference.Bhandari demanded that the Punjab Government should order an investigation by a central agency, arguing that the allegations should not be examined by the state machinery itself.The commission has ordered an inquiry into the allegations and said that further action would depend on the action-taken report submitted by the Punjab authorities.