Vendetta: Panel in a fix over complaints during Cong rule

CHANDIGARH: The claim of Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh of providing impartial policing in his tenure faces a litmus test as the Commission of Inquiry, constituted by him to look into false cases registered during the SAD-BJP’s 10-year regime, has received 115 complaints since the new government took over.

A sign board of the commission office on the premises of the Forest Department Complex in Mohali. Tribune photo

Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 20

The claim of Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh of providing impartial policing in his tenure faces a litmus test as the Commission of Inquiry, constituted by him to look into false cases registered during the SAD-BJP’s 10-year regime, has received 115 complaints since the new government took over.

The commission has sought the opinion of the government on these cases as its mandate is restricted to take up cases registered between April 5, 2007 and April 5, 2017.

The commission has written a letter to the Home Department, headed by the Chief Minister himself, to clarify on the issue. The letter follows a media interview by the CM in August that the complaints can be filed in fresh cases also.

Sources said the government would have to rectify the terms and conditions of the two-member commission to allow it to take up complaints against cases registered after April 5.

Justice Mehtab Singh Gill (retd) heads the commission, while Justice BS Mehndiratta is its member. The commission in its two reports submitted to the government said nearly 62 per cent of 284 cases examined by it revealed political vendetta as the motive of the FIRs.

It could not be ascertained how many of the 115 complaints during the present government’s tenure pertain to political vendetta.

The commission has already taken up a false case registered during the present government and decided it against the police. The sources said the case was taken up by the commission at the insistence of the Chief Minister.

They said one Parwinder Kaur had approached Amarinder with her complaint. This case was registered on April 26 this year, about 40 days into the new government, against a physically challenged woman who was accused by her relatives of occupying a house forcibly even though she was living in the same house for more than 12 years.

The commission declared the case false and had ordered the cancellation of the FIR as the police were yet to submit challan in a trial court.