SIT sends second questionnaire to Chattopadhyaya

CHANDIGARH: Trouble seems to be brewing for Punjab director general of police (DGP, human resource development) S Chattopadhyaya in the case involving the suicide by former Chief Khalsa Diwan Charanjeet Chadha’s son Inderpreet Chadha with the special investigation team (SIT) probing the case sending second questionnaire to him.

In the fresh set of questions, the SIT has questioned DGP’s link with the Mohali-based immigration firm WWICS whose owner Col BS Sandhu (retd) is wanted by the Mohali police in the case of recovery of body of a Himachal native from the water tank of Forest Hill Resort in Nayagaon near Chandigarh. The resort is owned by the WWICS group. Sandhu is on the run and the police are yet to slap charges on him. Sandhu’s son Davinder Sandhu is already in Amritsar jail with 11 others for allegedly abetting Chadha’s suicide.

Chattopadhyaya’s name also find mention in the suicide note by Chadha who in one of the notes had demanded probe in the DGP’s relationship with Davinder Sandhu and two women Kay Ghuman and Manya, also booked in the abetment case.

“Chattopadhyaya of the NRI Commission (as the police officer was serving in the NRI commission as ADGP before he was elevated as DGP) is hand in glove with them (Davinder, Kay Ghuman, Manya). Check Kay’s and Manya’s relation with him,” reads one section of the suicide note which SIT claimed to have verified from forensic experts.

The fresh questionnaire signed by inspector general (IG) LK Yadav has also questions the DGP (HRD) over his relationship with Rajiv Bajaj, one of the directors in WWICS, who calls shots in absence of the Sandhus.

Notably, Bajaj held a press conference in Chandigarh on March 30 that the police led by SIT member LK Yadav were trying to implicate the Sandhus in the Chadha suicide case and the recovery of the body from the resort.

Bajaj also claimed that Chattopadhaya’s name was also being dragged in the case on the behalf of senior police officials who don’t want to see him as next the Punjab DGP as the resent incumbent Suresh Arora retires in September. “In the fresh questionnaire, the DGP (HRD) has been asked if he has shared certain documents pertaining to some critical issues regarding investigation into the Chadha suicide case,” said a senior official involved in the probe.

The DGP has been asked to reply to the questions “as soon as possible” with a note that “otherwise the SIT will adduce it as a circumstantial evidence”. Chattopadhyaya has not replied to the first questionnaire sent by SIT on March 6. In a written reply to the SIT, he through a letter dated March 8 had requested that to answer the SIT questions, he needs some documents from the Punjab NRI panel and sought the same through the Right to Information Act. “As soon as I get documents, I will file reply in three days,” the letter reads.

Chattopadhyaya was not available for comments despite attempts to contact him. He did not reply to a text message either.