IG Vijay Partap returns to head SIT probing sacrilege cases

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, May 27

After a brief hiatus into which he was forced by the Election Commission order, IG Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh is back to take forward the SIT probe into the sacrilege cases and police firing that rocked Punjab under the SAD-BJP regime.

Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, who also heads the Home Department, had, during his election campaign, categorically announced that IG Kunwar Pratap would be back to complete and take the SIT investigations to their logical conclusion the day after the election code of conduct was lifted. The code of conduct ended last evening.

As per orders issued on behalf of the Governor of Punjab today, Home Secretary NS Kalsi said Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh is transferred and posted as the IGP, OCCU (Organised Crime Control Unit), with the Additional Charge of IGP, Counter Intelligence, Amritsar.

He was posted to the counter intelligence wing after being shifted out of the OCCU on the EC orders for alleged poll code violation, a charge that even the CM had stated as incorrect.

The CM had even alleged that the orders were issued at the behest of the ruling BJP – an ally of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), whose top leaders, including the Badals, had figured in the investigations.

The Ranjit Singh Commission, set up by the Capt Amarinder Singh government to probe the cases, had suggested further probe into the role of the Badals, which the SIT was further probing.