Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh at the Vidhan Sabha on Tuesday. (Express photo by Kamleshwar Singh)
A few days after Special Task Force (STF) chief Harpreet Singh Sidhu submitted his report on former Revenue Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia in the High Court which was subsequently leaked, the Punjab government has clipped Sidhu’s wings by making him report to the Director General of Police (DGP).
The announcement that the STF would come under Punjab Police chief came from Chief Minister Amarinder Singh in the Assembly while replying to the debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address.
“We are restructuring the STF. It will be autonomous vertical, coming under the police chief but work independently. They need staff that can be provided by the police department,” said Amarinder, who also praised the “good work” done by STF in tackling drug menace.
Earlier, Sidhu was directly reporting to Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who had handpicked Sidhu, a Punjab cadre IAS officer, then on deputation in Chattisgarh to fight anti-naxal operations, to head STF.
The task force was Amarinder’s team, mandated to eradicate drugs from the state. Amarinder had constituted the STF after coming to power on an oath that he would eradicate the menace of drugs from the state in four weeks. He had taken oath holding a gutka (a Sikh holy book) in a public rally.
The STF chief had submitted a report on Majithia in a sealed envelope recently. The report was later leaked to media and Punjab Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu too had read it out to the media at a press conference at his official residence. He had egged on Amarinder to take action against Majithia as the “report had stated that there was enough evidence against Majithia to carry out investigations against him”.
Amarinder had, however, remained non-committal about any action against Majithia amid a perception gaining ground that he was “soft” on the Akali leader.
Amarinder was spoke to the media during a press conference following his address in the Assembly, again remained non-committal about the further action in the case. When asked about 40 Congress MLAs writing a leter to him, Amarinder said, “Why are you asking me a question a year later? Jo likhna hai likh do (Write whatever you feel like). I will not answer this.”
When told that the question was relevant after the fresh report of STF, he said, “What do the MLAs know about the facts? They know nothing. The STF knows the facts. We have formed a two-member committee to look into it. When investigation is on, we cannot leak the report.”
He said they would get an inquiry done as to who leaked the report to the media.
When asked why wasn’t Sidhu put under the DGP in the first place, the CM said, “Look Harpreet Sidhu was on deputation assignment in
Chattisgarh. To bring him back, we needed to assign him in CMO.” Sidhu was not available for comments.