IG Gurinder Dhillon not new to controversies
CHANDIGARH: Under the CBI scanner after the arrest of a middleman with Rs 10-lakh bribe, inspector general (IG) of police Gurinder Singh Dhillon is not new to controversies.
Dhillon, who is a blue-eyed boy of a powerful lobby of senior officials in the Punjab Police and an adviser to the chief minister, had raised a storm in May 2015 when as Ludhiana deputy inspector general (DIG), he arbitrarily revoked the dismissal of catturned-cop inspector Gurmeet Pinki.
Pinki, who was convicted in 2001 murder of a Ludhiana-based resident Avtar Singh Gola, was rehabilitated as head constable on the orders of Dhillon, who had described Pinki as “an outstanding policeman and an asset to the department having a proven record of exemplary and extraordinary work”.
The decision irked the previous SAD government as Pinki’s reinstatement was seen as a blow to pro-sikh sentiments in Punjab due to the cop’s controversial profile during the days of terrorism in the state. Dhillon’s order was then set aside on the directive of inspector general (Ig-zonal) Lok Nath Angra. A probe was also ordered to inquire into the episode and Dhillon was transferred within hours after the matter reached the then deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.
At that time, allegations about exchange of Rs 60 lakh by a middleman, Aman Skoda, and Pinki had also surfaced in this case, but the matter was allegedly hushed up. In another case in 2015, then chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had ordered a probe against Dhillon for allegedly misusing his position to harass an NRI family from Patiala in a land dispute case.
The complainant in the case, NRI Manjinder Pal Singh and his wife Selina Singh of San Francisco (US), had claimed that Dhillon stormed into their farmhouse near Patiala, threatened them and also sent goons who stayed on the premises for days together, pressing them to “budge” in a family dispute over the possession of around 100 acres of agricultural land.
The NRI couple had alleged that they were so much intimidated by Dhillon that they feared entering Patiala. The state NRI Commission had recommended a probe in the case and then principal secretary (home) Jagpal Singh questioned the police officer in the case. The outcome of this probe is still not known.
In October 2012, within three months of his appointment as Faridkot SSP, Dhillon was transferred for failing to tackle the situation in the infamous Shruti abduction case.