Moga SSP drug case: HC to examine reports by Chattopadhyaya

THE BENCH OF JUSTICE SURYA KANT TOOK BOTH REPORTS ON RECORD AND DEFERRED HEARING TILL JULY 22

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court was on Wednesday informed that director general of police (human resource development) Siddharth Chattopadhyaya, heading a special investigation team (SIT) to probe alleged complicity of Moga senior superintendent of police (SSP) and drug traffickers, has filed two reports on May 8.

The first report, which pertains to the investigation into the role of Moga SSP Raj Jit Singh, has been signed by all the three SIT members, while the second report about his “senior officers” in Punjab Police has been signed by him only.

Two other members of the SIT are additional director general of police Prabodh Kumar and inspector general of police Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh.

The high court bench of justice Surya Kant took both the reports on record and deferred hearing till July 22, stating that it would examine both the reports. The SIT was constituted on December 15, 2017, after the Moga SSP levelled allegations of bias against chief of special task force (STF) Harpreet Singh Sidhu.

Punjab advocate general Atul Nanda raised objection to the second report filed by Chattopadhyaya. After the hearing, Nanda said it is yet to be seen whether the second report could have been filed only by Chattopadhyaya. “We have opposed this report. The court has said that it will examine the report in context of orders passed on the constitution of the SIT,” he said.