IPS officer among 4 senior Punjab cops under cloud in SIT reports on drug trafficking

By Rajinder S Taggar

Chandigarh, April 14: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the Punjab and Haryana High Court to investigate the drug trafficking issue within the ambit of two specific parameters enumerated by Justice Surya Kant in 2017 has accomplished its task and gone on to indict AIG Raj Jit Singh Hundal besides indicating the involvement of three others including an IPS officer in the dirty trade.

Highly placed sources close to the SIT members said, "Details of highly disproportionate assets made by AIG Raj Jit Singh are clearly mentioned in the report. Three other officers who sought the transfer of Inspector (substantial rank head constable) Inderjit Singh (now in jail) to places where ever they were posted have also been put in black and white."

Acting on a petition by Raj Jit Singh alleging ADGP Harpreet Singh Sidhu, chief of Special Task Force (STF), was biased against him after he arrested Inderjit Singh, the High Court listed 2-parameters for the SIT to probe.

First: To look into the allegation of whether ADGP Harpreet Singh Sidhu was biased against the petitioner. Second: To look into Inderjit's nexus with Raj Jit Singh and drug smugglers in Punjab.

The High Court did not task the SIT to probe the Police-politician-smugglers nexus as is being reported in the media.

Sources maintain the SIT fully accomplished the task assigned to it. While probing the second issue, the SIT found Inderjit's nexus with smugglers and 4 police officers, three of who are Punjab Police Service officers (PPS) and one an IPS officer of the Punjab cadre.

Once the second issue was established, the first issue of ADGP Harpreet Sidhu's bias against Raj Jit stood dissolved. In other words, it implied the allegation made in the petition against Sidhu was false.

SIT brought out in its report that these 4 officers during postings as SSPs, illegally allowed a head constable Inderjit Singh to register FIRs under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act when an officer not below the rank of a regular ASI can register a case. It helped the accused smugglers to get acquitted by the courts. The maximum recovery of drugs was seen in the areas under the jurisdiction of these SSPs.

It could not be believed that these senior police officers were not aware that under the statutes of the NDPS Act an officer below the rank of a regular ASI cannot register an FIR in a drugs case. This has brought these officers under a cloud over conniving with smugglers to make easy money.

The findings of SIT qua Raj Jit stand corroborated by the Mohali court statement of DSP (retd) Jaswant Singh, who worked with Inderjit in Tarn Taran, as reported in detail by indianarrative.com on April 1, 2023.

DSP Jaswant categorically stated that knowing well that Inderjit's substantial rank was of a head constable and, despite his pointing out, SSP Raj Jit allowed him to register FIRs under the NDPS Act. It ultimately helped several smugglers to get acquitted during the trial as discovered by the then STF chief Sidhu.

It is important to identify the departmental "forces behind" these police officers who got plum postings and were allowed to carry mastermind Inderjit Singh along with them to the districts of their postings.

Sources maintain, as per an observation of Justice Surya Kant, the SIT was expected to file a report on drugs on the next date. In about 5 months the SIT accomplished its task and quickly submitted 3 separate reports on successive dates that could also be termed a ready reckoner of police officers involved in drug trafficking.

An in-depth investigation, after registering an FIR, against the 4 police officers would have been a natural corollary of SIT reports, opine sources.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)

--indianarrative

( 651 Words)

2023-04-14-19:21:04
Source: IANS