Punjab Assembly in session: DGP fails to submit report on ‘corrupt’ ASI, House mum
A day after Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan got the House to ratify his decision on seeking a report from the Punjab Director General of Police regarding an ASI accepting bribe from a “categorised” gangster, he, as well as those who endorsed his decision, went mum on the issue.
Neither the DGP submitted any report to the Speaker, nor did Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa or AAP MLA Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, who participated in the debate, raised the issue on the floor of the House.
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Sandhwan, when asked about the report, told The Tribune that he has written a letter to Home Secretary Gurkirat Kirpal Singh, asking him to identify all black sheep in the police. “I have asked him to submit a report on what action has been taken against such officers,” he said.
The Speaker also told The Tribune that he had initially sought a report from the DGP regarding the ASI, which the DGP had to submit at 10 am today. “But then, I decided to go by the ‘sense of the House’ in seeking a report on all such black sheep from the Home Secretary,” he said.
Interestingly, yesterday when the House decided to seek the report, it had sent alarm bells ringing in the corridors of power. Had the report been given by the DGP today, and had it been debated, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who holds charge of the Home Department, would have had to take the Opposition questions on the issue.
Since this episode was read as an attempt to point fingers at the CM, though aides of Sandhwan had brushed these suggestions aside, Speaker Sandhwan today praised the CM in the House. He said he was “praising the CM from the core of my heart. I am so happy that the Bill you presented (regarding amendments to PAPRA Act) is generating such a healthy debate and will benefit thousands”.
Yesterday, the Vidhan Sabha had ratified the suggestion of the Speaker to seek a report on the ASI and those who were trying to save him on the issue of allegedly receiving money from a gangster in Kotkapura, the Speaker’s constituency.
Bajwa had demanded that such police officers should be sacked, while maintaining that action should also be taken against an SP for facilitating the interview of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.
Pargat Singh had suggested that a dope test of all police personnel be done, while Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, who took voluntary retirement from the Punjab Police, said the mafia were running the affairs of the government.