Punjab Govt takes steps to identify ‘black sheep’ in Police Dept

The state government has started the process to identify the “black sheep in the Punjab Police” so that a list of such officials can be presented to Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan.

According to information gathered by The Tribune, the state Home Department has started the process to compile a list of all police officers who have been booked either in a police case or a case by the state Vigilance Bureau. The list will be sent to the Speaker next week.

Sources say the number of such police personnel is in hundreds and it will take time to compile details of the action taken against each of them, and the legal status of such cases.

Last week, during the Vidhan Sabha session, the House, egged on by the Speaker, had initially sought a report from the Punjab DGP about the action taken against an ASI posted at Kotkapura (his own constituency) for seeking graft from a “categorised” gangster, and the cops who were supporting him. ASI Bohar Singh was placed under suspension, but reports of an earlier tiff between the ASI and a relative of Speaker Sandhwan had also surfaced.

Later, as the issue gained political overtones, considering that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who holds the charge of the Home Department, had been put in a spot, the Speaker softened his stance and said he had sought a report on all “black sheep” in the police. “I decided to go by the ‘sense of the House’ in seeking a report on all tainted officers,” the Speaker had told The Tribune.