Have not interfered in HC proceedings, says CM on police turf war

CHANDIGARH: Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh said on Tuesday that he had not, in any way, interfered in Punjab and Haryana high court proceedings in a case related to the ongoing tussle between top Punjab Police officials.

“I had called a meeting of the top brass of the police to only give directions in the interest of the state,” he said, while speaking to reporters in the state secretariat, where the newlynamed ministers took charge.

He was responding to a question on the plea of DGP (human resource development) Sidhharth Chattopadhyaya’s lawyer in the HC on Monday saying that the CM was in contempt of court for having called a disciplinary meeting of the police top brass.

“I will not tolerate indiscipline in the force. Discipline in the uniformed forces, be it the Army, the paramilitary or the police, has to be maintained at all costs,” he added.

Amarinder had given a dressing-down to DGP and ADGP -rank officers in the meeting. This was after Chattopadhyaya, in an application before the HC, accused Punjab DGP Suresh Arora and DGP (intelligence) Dinkar Gupta of trying to drag him into the suicide case of the son of a former president of a century-old charitable-cum-educational body, Chief Khalsa Dewan. Amarinder had warned officials against going to media and the courts on official matters.

On bringing the Special Task Force (STF) against drugs under Punjab DGP, Amarinder reiterated that the only way to bring STF chief Harpreet Singh Sidhu to the state to head the STF against drugs was to get him into the chief minister’s office (CMO) since he was then on central deputation and yet to complete his tenure.

“Now that his pending tenure with the central government has ended, he has been placed under the DGP,” the CM added.