Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 21

While ex-IG Kunwar Vijay Pratap has become the latest cop to leave khaki and don a politician’s white kurta-pyjama, several other police officers have followed the same path — a few, however, with glowing success in Punjab.

Just one of 10 officers joined Cabinet

From the rank of DSP to DGP, more than 10 police officers have become politicians. Only one of them went on to become a minister, while others have either remained just MLAs or even failed to win polls.

Former DGP (J&K) PS Gill, who hailed from Punjab, courted quite a controversy when he joined the Shiromani Akali Dal to contest elections from Moga. He failed miserably and later joined the BJP.

IG Bhagwan Singh Danewalia was among the first to try second innings in politics. He was the chief of the Punjab Police in the 1970s when an Inspector-General was the highest rank in the police force. He was a reformist and penned three books advocating changes in policing apart from social reforms. He chose to float his own party arguing that neither Congress nor the Akalis meant betterment of the state.

He contested byelection from Faridkot against Jagdish Kaur, mother of sitting Congress MLA Kikki Dhillon, but

polled negligible votes.

DSP Bishambar Das joined the BJP after retirement and won the Narot Mehra Assembly elections. His son Hardeep Kumar joined SAD post his demise in 2020.

Sitting Bholath MLA Sukhpal Khaira’s father Sukhjinder Singh Khaira was a DSP before joining politics. He became the Education Minister in the Parkash Singh Badal government. He later had differences with the Akali leadership and left it.

Harmohan Singh, who was once posted as SSP, took pre-mature retirement to join the Akali Dal. He is the son of ex-Akali minister and five-time MLA from Chamkaur Sahib, Satwant Kaur Sandhu.