DGP Yadav appears before EC, defends FIRs involving Akalis

Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav on Tuesday briefed the Election Commission of India in New Delhi on the nine FIRs registered against Shiromani Akali Dal workers during the model code of conduct for the Tarn Taran Assembly byelection.

Sources say the DGP defended the FIRs that the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has termed as false and motivated. The DGP maintained that all cases were part of legitimate criminal investigations and not politically motivated, reiterating the stand taken earlier in a sealed report submitted by Special DGP Ram Singh.

Sources said the commission heard the DGP for nearly an hour and is now examining his detailed submission before deciding the next course of action. The summons to the state police chief followed repeated complaints by SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, who accused the AAP government of using the police as a tool to intimidate Opposition workers ahead of the November 11 byelection.

Badal alleged that police stations in Tarn Taran, Amritsar, Moga and Batala registered “fake and fabricated” cases in a coordinated manner, leading to the arrest of four SAD functionaries and naming of six others on charges ranging from criminal intimidation to election-related offences.

On November 8, three days before the polling, the ECI suspended Tarn Taran SSP Dr Ravjot Kaur Grewal for “serious lapses in impartial conduct” after a police observer flagged “concerted actions” across districts that compromised the level playing field. The commission also transferred two DSPs and one SHO in the district and handed additional charge of Tarn Taran to Amritsar Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar.

A day after AAP candidate Harmeet Singh Sandhu won the seat by over 12,000 votes on November 14, the Punjab Government suspended Amritsar (Rural) SSP Maninder Singh, officially for “failure to take action against gangsters” operating in his jurisdiction. Sources in the ruling AAP claimed that some of these gangsters supported the Shiromani Akali Dal during the campaign, a charge the SAD dismissed as baseless.

Despite an earlier review by Special DGP Ram Singh that upheld the police actions as lawful, the Election Commission remained unconvinced and extended the probe, eventually summoning the DGP himself on November 25.

The SAD has demanded that all nine FIRs be quashed and an independent inquiry ordered into what it called “criminal misuse” of state machinery by the Mann government. As of now, the Election Commission has made no formal announcement on further disciplinary action or cancellation of the contested FIRs.