AAP leader caught on wrong foot

NO VENDETTA Rajbir Kaur’s Olympian husband was indicted, removed from Punjab Police months before she joined AAP

CHANDIGARH: The Aam Aadmi Party’s charge that former hockey Olympian Gurmail Singh was removed from Punjab Police due to cheap politics has fallen flat. It turns out that he was indicted by the Punjab and Haryana high court for holding a murder accused innocent much before his wife joined the AAP.

AAP leaders Sanjay Singh and Bhagwant Mann defended Gurmail Singh after his wife and party leader Rajbir Kaur claimed that the SAD-BJP government had discontinued her husband’s one-year extension due to political vendetta.

Gurmail Singh, who was in the hockey team that won the gold at the Moscow Olympics, was a superintendent in Punjab Police.

Rajbir Kaur, who was a hockey player in four Asian Games, joined the AAP recently. Sanjay Singh and Mann claimed that the Akali government targeted Gurmail as Rajbir is an AAP leader.

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In December 2010, Gurmail Singh, who was the then Moga superintendent of police (detective), found all accused in an attempt to murder case innocent. Four years later, the high court moved the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). This March, the agency got sanction from the Punjab government to prosecute Gurmail, months before his wife joined the AAP.

Gurmail Singh, 59, retired in December 2015. In July, a threemember committee, led by additional chief secretary (home) Jagpal Singh Sandhu, withdrew his one-year extension. Rules don’t permit service if the officer has a criminal case or a departmental inquiry pending.