Govt cracks whip; 2 more DSPs chargesheeted

Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 20

The Khattar Government has started cracking the whip against the officials indicted in the Prakash Singh Committee report for their alleged dereliction of duty during last year’s violent Jat quota agitation.

Close on the heels of chargesheeting two Rohtak DSPs— Amit Dahiya and Amit Bhatia—the BJP Government today chargesheeted two more DSPs. The chargesheeted DSPs—Sukhbir Singh(Kalanaur, Rohtak) and Satish Kumar (Gannaur, Sonepat)— are already under suspension.

Sources told The Tribune that these officials would be chargesheeted for departmental action under a major penalty clause, which included the possibility of dismissal from service.

Additional Chief Secretary(Home) Ram Niwas asserted while the innocent would not be punished, those found guilty for their alleged role during the Jat quota stir would not be spared.

Immediately after the violent Jat quota stir in February last year which claimed 30 lives and led to the destruction of property worth crores of rupees, the Haryana Government had suspended senior IPS officer and IGP (Rohtak Range) Shrikant Jadhav and Amit Dahiya and Amit Bhatia. Jadhav was later reinstated though department proceedings against him are still pending.

Besides, three HCS officers — Dharmender Singh, Pankaj Kumar and Jagdeep Singh —posted as SDMs at Gohana, Jhajjar and Hansi, respectively, were also placed under suspension.

Earlier, apart from four above DSPs, eight other DSPs—Surender Singh (Meham, Rohtak), Vijayendra Singh (Headquarters, Rohtak), Pawan Kumar (Rohtak), Jagat Singh (Beri, Jhajjar), Sandeep Malik (Hansi, Hisar), Rajbir Singh (Loharu, Bhiwani), Vinod Kumar (Gohana, Sonepat) and Sunil Kumar (Sonepat)— were also suspended.

The Haryana Government is likely to charge-sheet the suspended HCS officers and the DSPs, sources added.

The Prakash Singh Committee report had reportedly indicted nearly 90 officials, including IAS, IPS , HCS and DSP-level officers for their alleged negligence during the Jat quota stir.