Minorities panel for disciplinary action against Phagwara DSP

Tribune News Service

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, June 10

The National Commission for Minorities has recommended disciplinary action against Phagwara Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Jaspreet Singh for allegedly misleading it in a case. The case pertained to impersonation by a person as Vigilance Officer and demanding Rs 5 lakh from Gursharan Singh of Dr Sharanjit Hospital in Jalandhar.

Says Conduct of police not up to the mark

• In its order against the Phagwara DSP, a five-member bench of the commission chaired by Iqbal Singh Lalpura said: “The conduct of the Kapurthala police is not up to the mark, which is expected from a senior police officer. The Home Secretary is directed to hand over the case for investigation to an IG rank officer from the headquarters.
• “A report may be sent to the commission about the progress of investigation by the officer entrusted with further investigation and to appear before the commission on June 30 with the latest report.”

A five-member bench of the commission chaired by Iqbal Singh Lalpura has written in the order passed against the DSP, “The conduct of the Kapurthala police is not up to the mark, which is expected from a senior police officer. The Home Secretary is directed to hand over the case for investigation to an IG rank officer from the headquarters. A report may be sent to the commission about the progress of investigation of the case by the officer entrusted with further investigation and to appear before the commission on June 30 with the report of the latest position of the case.”

Represented by Surinder Mittal, Gursharan Singh had alleged harassment and blackmail for extracting money by Amit Bhandari, a supplier of medicines to the hospital from Amritsar, along with Sarwan Sandhu and Rahul. Sarwan Sandhu had claimed to be a Vigilance Officer and sent fake SMS from his mobile phone, the petitioner had said. It was alleged that despite all documents supplied to the Kapurthala police, no action was taken.

The petition was filed on August 22, 2022. The Commission held a hearing on December 20, 2022 and directed the police to submit a report. An inquiry was conducted by the SP (Detective), which was approved by the Kapurthala SSP. A case was registered against Amit Bhandari on December 17, 2022, who was also arrested. The petitioner submitted his rejoinder to the police that it failed to consider video evidence against the other two — Rahul and Swaran Sandhu. The SSP sought exemption from the case and assigned it to the Phagwara DSP, who said there was no evidence against Rahul and Sandhu. The commission said the DSP was not able to give a satisfactory reply and stuck to the point that there was no evidence against the duo.

The Commission observed that the names of the three accused were in the FIR dated December 17, 2022 under Sections 385, 511 and 506 of the IPC; but the names of the duo were missing from column 7. “The police are to register an FIR based on the averments made in the complaint kept in its record”, it then ordered.

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