Chandigarh: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Saturday requested the Election Commission of India (ECI) to restrain the Congress government from indulging in any kind of political vendetta besides demanding the appointment of a regular DGP in Punjab.
Addressing a press conference here, party senior vice president Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said the party was making this appeal to the ECI because the Congress government was bent on using ad-hoc appointees in the police administration to strike out at the SAD.
“The Congress government appointed S Chattopadhyay as the new Acting DGP in the middle of the night on December 16 after replacing the incumbent IPS Sahota following the surfacing of a letter which questioned the Congress government’s resolve to implicate top SAD leaders including SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia in false cases. This appointment was done despite the fact that the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is scheduled to take a decision on appointment of a regular DGP on December 21 and Chattopdhyay is not even among the candidates shortlisted for consideration for the top post”.
Asking the Congress government to tell what was the emergent need for appoint Mr Chattopadhyay for a period of four days only, Dr Cheema said “this appointment strengthens the hypothesis that Pradesh Congress President Navjot Singh Sidhu, who has been championing the cause of the officer since long, is behind this appointment. It is also clear that the officer has been given the charge of Acting DGP to implement the agenda of the Congress party”.
Asserting that this adhocism had been created deliberately to keep top officers on tenterhooks and coerce them into taking action against the Akali leadership, Dr Cheema said earlier two heads of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) had been replaced after they refused to become party to the vendetta exercise.
“Now the third head of BOI – S K Ashtana has been hospitalized after writing a letter questioning the very rationale of proceeding against Mr Bikram Singh Majithia. Now it seems all that is left is for Home minister Sukhjinder Randhawa to take on the powers of the SSP and the DGP and register false cases against the SAD leadership”.
Asking the ECI to intervene in the matter, Dr Cheema said “earlier also the ECI had intervened in 2019 and asked the Punjab government to relieve then IG Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh from his post and not to give him any responsibility linked with the election process”.
He said later the high court had even exposed the Congress conspiracy to implicate the top Akali leadership in false cases by quashing the investigation done by the police officer which even led to the resignation of the police officer. “Recently the Supreme Court has also asked the Punjab government not to bring politics into the court but it seems the government has not learnt any lesson and continues with its politics of vendetta against the SAD”.
