Fresno City Hall turned on itself on Thursday, October 29, in the fallout from the arrest — and swift exoneration — of Punjabi council candidate Naindeep Singh. At an afternoon news conference, Councilmember Miguel Arias called for an independent investigation into Singh's October 24 arrest and its prompt leak to the media, saying "the integrity of our elections are at stake." Within about an hour, City Attorney Andrew Janz's office fired back, vowing to open a counter-investigation into Arias himself. Fresnoland, the Fresno nonprofit newsroom that has covered the case all week, reported both news conferences on Thursday.

Source: Fresnoland — City Hall tempers flare over Fresno council candidate arrest (Oct 29, 2026)

This is a new development in a story this site has followed in stages: Singh was arrested on the night of Saturday, October 24, on suspicion of driving under the influence of a drug; on Monday he insisted on his innocence and shared an independent hospital toxicology report showing no drugs; and on Tuesday, Police Chief Mindy Casto apologised to him in person and in public after the police laboratory's own test came back negative, with Mayor Jerry Dyer also apologising. Thursday's clash is about what happened around that arrest — who confirmed it, who leaked it, and whether politics played a part — five days before the November 3 election.

Source: Fresnoland — Fresno Police Chief apologizes to city council candidate (Oct 27, 2026)

Arias: investigate the arrest, the leak — and the city attorney's consultant

"The council should authorize an independent investigation into the Oct. 24 incident," Arias said Thursday, "including any relevant involvement by city officials, contractors, members of the law enforcement union personnel and political campaigns." Arias is a Singh supporter who had already said earlier in the week that he would call for a review of how news of the arrest leaked and whether policies were violated.

Source: Fresnoland (Oct 29, 2026)

Arias also raised questions about the Fresno City Attorney's Office's contract with political consultant Alex Tavlian, who is involved with multiple political action committees that have spent thousands of dollars on mailers attacking Fresno City Council candidates in both the 2026 contests and prior elections, Fresnoland reported. He called on Janz to terminate his contract with Tavlian, as well as any others related to political consulting, "because the city attorney does not have any business, in my view, hiring political consultants that do campaign work in the same election cycle in which councilmembers are elected," he said. Janz was the official who first confirmed Singh's arrest over the weekend to an independent blogger, David Taub — the confirmation that broke the story publicly on Sunday night.

Janz fires back within the hour

"Next week, I am calling on the City of Fresno to open an investigation into Councilmember Arias for interference in the City Attorney's legal obligation to disclose public records and potential violations of the Brown Act," Janz said in response. "My office follows the City Charter and the law," he added, "and we will continue doing our job without getting dragged into Councilmember Arias' political theater." The Brown Act is California's open-meetings law for local government bodies. Janz's office does not handle DUI cases, but it has specific oversight roles in local elections such as Singh's race, Fresnoland noted.

Source: Fresnoland (Oct 29, 2026)

The city attorney's office had already defended its role on Wednesday. Spokesperson Marcelino Valdez told Fresnoland: "The City Attorney and his office are tasked with responding to matters of public record, a requirement under state and federal law. An arrest is a matter of public record. Simultaneous with the Fresno Police Department, the City Attorney's Office confirmed an arrest that occurred within the city's jurisdiction when asked by a journalist."

Source: Fresnoland — Backlash over candidate Naindeep Singh's arrest in Fresno (Oct 29, 2026)

The wider backlash behind Thursday's clash

Arias was not the first to demand an outside probe. Hours after Chief Casto's Tuesday apology, the Fresno-based Bains Law Offices sent a detailed letter to City Hall demanding an independent investigation into Janz and his handling of the Singh arrest. The letter, signed by attorney Iqbal Singh Bains, questions the timing of the arrest and the role Janz played in releasing the information; the firm contributed $5,500 to Singh's city council campaign in September, a fact Fresnoland reported alongside the letter. Separately, Sandra Celedon, president and CEO of Fresno Building Healthy Communities and a Singh supporter, called on the city to commission an independent review of the traffic stop itself and to release the body-camera footage, raising whether racial profiling played a role. Police have said they will not release the body-camera footage until after the district attorney's office decides on any possible charges, and no claims for damages had been filed as of Wednesday, attorney Kevin Little told Fresnoland.

Source: Fresnoland — Backlash over candidate Naindeep Singh's arrest in Fresno (Oct 29, 2026)

For her part, Chief Casto has stood by the stop while owning the outcome. She said Singh was "absolutely not" stopped because of profiling, that "there was an expired tag on that vehicle — that was 100% a justified stop," and that the arresting officer is a drug-recognition expert who acted on probable cause. She also said she would rather apologise to Singh than "call and tell a mother or a father that their child's been killed by a DUI driver." Singh, 48, is a Central Unified School District trustee and executive director of the Jakara Movement, a Punjabi-Sikh civil rights organisation; he finished first in the June primary for the open District 1 seat but without enough votes to win outright, and faces attorney Rob Fuentes in the November 3 vote.

Source: Fresnoland — Fresno Police Chief apologizes to city council candidate (Oct 27, 2026)

What happens next

Two clocks now run at once. Politically, Fresno voters decide the District 1 race on Tuesday, November 3, with Singh back out walking the district and talking to voters, as he said this week he would do. Institutionally, the council would have to vote to authorise the independent investigation Arias wants, and Janz has put his counter-request on the record for next week. The district attorney's decision on any charges, and the withheld body-camera footage, remain outstanding. For Fresno's large Punjabi community — one of the biggest in California's Central Valley — the case has become a test of how the city's police, its city attorney and its council handle an arrest that its own police chief has already apologised for.