Hindustan Times (Patiala)

MOGA SSP RAJ JIT SINGH SHUNTED OUT

- Ravinder Vasudeva

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government on Monday transferre­d Moga senior superinten­dent of police (SSP) Raj Jit Singh Hundal whose name had cropped up in a drug case involving dismissed Punjab Police inspector Inderjit Singh.

PPS officer Kamaljit Singh has been appointed as Moga SSP. Raj jit Singh has been posted as commandant fourth battalion at Mohali.

The SSP’s transfer orders came on interventi­on of chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh who had to face a barrage of questions from his cabinet colleagues on continuing with the “tainted officer.”

Notably, the Punjab and Haryana high court had last year ordered the setting up of the SIT led by DGP Sidhharth Chattopadh­yay to probe the role of Raj Jit Singh in the drug traffickin­g case and had ordered dismissal of inspector Inderjit in the case. The SIT was formed after Raj Jit Singh moved the high court seeking its directions to hand over the case to other than special task force chief HS Sidhu, claiming that he had strong apprehensi­ons that he would be falsely implicated by Sidhu.

Why have we made a police officer such a big liability. Whenever any drug case comes up, the people and the media question government’s compulsion behind continuing him as SSP. A PUNJAB CABINET MINISTER

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In May this year, Chattopadh­yay submitted the report of the probe in relation to the alleged involvemen­t of Raj Jit Singh in a drug traffickin­g case to the HC.

As per informatio­n, cabinet ministers, including Tript Rajinder Bajwa, Sukhjinder Randhawa and Navjot Sidhu, strongly advocated immediate acting against the SSP citing that his continuati­on has not gone down well with the seriousnes­s of the Congress government to tackle drug menace.

“Why have we made a police officer such a big liability. Whenever any drug case comes up, the people and the media question government’s compulsion behind continuing him as SSP. If he is clean, let him come clean from the court but for now, we must act,” said a cabinet minister.

PPCC chief Sunil Jakhar, who also met the CM and ministers, also pushed for strong action against Raj Jit.

Bajwa, who is a close relative of Raj jit, demanded dismissal of Rajit from the service. “Yes, I admit that he is my relative. But I strongly demand that he should be dismissed from the service. He (Rai Jit) is very clever When his name cropped up in the drug case, he moved court, claiming that STF was acting biased against him,” Bajwa said.

Rajjit, an efficient but controvers­ial officer, is considered a blue-eyed boy of DGP Suresh Arora and DGP (intelligen­ce) Dinkar Gupta.

Raj jit’s case also became the base of recent fight between topbrass of Punjab Police when Chattopadh­yaya claimed in the court on April 6 that while probing Rajjit’s role, he has got “serious pointers” about involvemen­t of DGP Punjab and DGP Intelligen­ce. Chattopadh­yaya has already submitted his finding in the report and the case comes up for hearing on July 25.

 ??  ?? SSP Raj Jit Singh Hundal
SSP Raj Jit Singh Hundal

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