Varinder Kumar is Punjab Police intel wing chief

CHANDIGARH: The removal of director general of police (Dgp)-rank officer VK Bhawra as head of the intelligence wing of the state police is being seen in the corridors of power as chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s move to ensure the chain of command is strengthened in the factionalism-hit force.

Since his appointment, issues had cropped up in the reporting relationship between state DGP Dinkar Gupta’s office and the intelligence wing, as both officers are from the 1987-batch, senior government functionaries say.

This arose as the intelligence head reports to the state DGP. The government even tried to settle the issue by an order that Bhawra will report to the home secretary, but it failed to bring the desired results.

Even at the time of Gupta’s appointment in February 2019, the placing of his batchmate, Bhawra, as the head of the highly-important intelligence wing was seen as an ‘unprecedented experiment’.

“The police is a uniformed force and you cannot have a proper chain of command, if there are issues in the reporting relationships. A clear-cut hierarchy is a must to have better results. The appointment of DGP’S batchmate as intelligence head is bound to create administrative issues. This anomaly has been removed by replacing

him,” said a senior government functionary.

The reshuffle has come as a shot in the arm for Gupta. The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) had quashed his appointment as the DGP, but the high court had stayed this order.

New intelligence chief Varinder Kumar has served as IG in the department.