The DGP’s application last Friday stated that he was being implicated in the suicide case at the behest of DGP Suresh Arora and DGP (Intelligence) Dinkar Gupta.
IN A damage control bid after the split in the Punjab police came to the fore recently, the state government is considering seeking permission from the Punjab & Haryana High court to remove IG (Crime) L K Yadav as the head of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the suicide of Inderpreet Singh Chadha, son of Chief Khalsa Diwan president Charanjeet Singh Chadha.
The government wants the High Court’s permission to bring in a replacement as the SIT’s investigation has been brought to the notice of the court through the application of DGP (HRD) Siddharth Chattopadhyay.
The DGP’s application last Friday stated that he was being implicated in the suicide case at the behest of DGP Suresh Arora and DGP (Intelligence) Dinkar Gupta. He had alleged that the role of the duo had surfaced in the ongoing SIT probe against dismissed inspector Inderjit Singh and SSP Moga Raj Jit Singh in a drug trafficking case.
Following Chattopadhyay’s application, the HC had stayed investigations against him in the suicide case.
Sources in the government told The Indian Express that the government wanted to end the Yadav-Chattopadhyaya feud by replacing Yadav. “We have discussed the issue threadbare. We feel handing over the SIT to another officer would put an end to these allegations that have surfaced,” said a functionary of the government.
He hinted that the investigations against Chattopadhyay would continue under a new SIT leader. “After all, Chadha’a diary has mentioned Chattopadhyay’s name. He should have no apprehensions after Yadav’s removal.”
The government is also planning to submit in the High Court that it should be allowed to handle the issue of discipline among the officers that has arisen after Chattopadhyaya’s application in the court. “We will remove the grievance by removing the SIT chief but this does not end the issue of indiscipline. If Chattopadhyay was smelling a rat, he did not need to go to the High Court directly. He should have first taken it at the official level. After all, there is a hierarchy. Every officer has a boss and the hierarchy ends at the Home Minister, who happens to be the Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh himself,” said a senior official.
He added it was felt strongly that all the officials of the government must follow the proper channels. “If they are found wanting then the government must discipline them by taking action.”
Amarinder had set up a three-member panel comprising Chief Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Suresh Kumar, DGP Suresh Arora and Home Secretary NS Kalsi and asked the panel to prepare a report on the issue and suggest corrective action. The panel is yet to give its report to the CM.
Chadha committed suicide on January 3 this year after a purported video showing his father, Charanjeet Singh Chadha, in an objectionable position with a woman, surfaced. Chadha mentioned Chattopadhyay’s name in his diary accusing him of harassment in connection with a complaint by an NRI in 2016. Chattopadhyay was a member of NRI Commission then.