Charges against cops in drug nexus: Three reports opened; HC issues notice to two former DGPs

The case before the court is an offshoot of 2013 suo motu one, infamously known as the Bhola drugs case in which high court has been monitoring steps taken by the state for eradication drugs menace and probe against those involved, including those in positions of power and influence.

An honest investigation into an alleged nexus between the police and people in the drug trade or an attempt to settle scores and better one’s own career prospects -- that’s the question before the Punjab & Haryana high court as it decides what to do with a controversial report, one of four, but filed alone by Siddharth Chattopadhyaya, a special investigation team (SIT) head and then a DGP in the Punjab Police.

The SIT submitted two reports, one on January 30, 2018, and the second on March 14, 2018.

The controversy is because the fourth report, one of two submitted on May 8, 2018, was signed only by Chattopadhyaya, with the other two members of the team disassociating themselves from it, a fact that led to the state government at the time too objecting to it. Punjab has a different government now, and it wants the fourth report, like the other three, submitted in sealed covers, to be opened and handed over to it.

As the court was deliberating this, the state’s former DGP and now chief information commissioner (CIC), Punjab, Suresh Arora, filed an application demanding that he be allowed to “intervene” in the case . Arora’s claim is that Chattopadhyaya targeted him, then the DGP, and Dinkar Gupta, his (Arora’s succesor), and now head of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in that report. The court on Tuesday opened all four reports and three of the reports were ordered to be part of record, which state also can access now. But the controversial report was resealed and sought the responses of Gupta and Chattopadhyaya, now retired, in the matter by May 4. Interestingly, Chattopadhyaya is among the senior police officers in the state indicted by the Supreme Court-appointed panel looking into a breach in the Prime Minister’s security during a visit to Punjab in January 2022.

The case before the court is an offshoot of 2013 suo motu one, infamously known as the Bhola drugs case in which high court has been monitoring steps taken by the state for eradication drugs menace and probe against those involved, including those in positions of power and influence.

The court-monitored SIT led by Chattopadhyaya was constituted on December 15, 2017 after a then SSP, Raj Jit Singh had levelled allegations of bias against Harpreet Singh Sidhu, the chief of a special task force (STF) that was investigating the drugs case.

The SIT submitted two reports, one on January 30, 2018, and the second on March 14, 2018. Then, on April 6, 2018 Chattopadhyaya told the court that the “role” of then police chief Arora and then DGP (intelligence) Gupta had come to light during the investigation. He suggested that he was being implicated in the suicide case of Inderpreet Chadha, son of former Chief Khalsa Diwan president Charanjit Singh Chadha, because the SIT was getting close to the “truth”. The suicide case was registered in Amritsar in January 2018.

On May 8, 2018, the SIT filed two more reports. Of this, one was signed only by Chattopadhyaya. The high court took all these reports on record on May 8.

In the application taken up on Tuesday, Arora argued that he be allowed to intervene to bring “right perspective” before court, about the “private report” submitted by Chattopadhyaya.

His application stated that Chattopadhyaya acted beyond the scope of the mandate of the SIT, as specified by the court at the time of its constitution, and in a mala fide manner with a view to better his chances of being appointed to the top post of the head of the police force in Punjab.

As things turned out, Chattopadhyaya was initially not named DGP after Arora, and fought a service litigation against his non-appointment , during which the government told the Supreme Court that he acted beyond the mandate given by the court and had abused his position as the head of the SIT to target his rivals. The government questioned the timing of his allegations against Arora and Gupta, as the appointment of new DGP was to take place soon.

Arora said in his application that Chattopadhyaya somehow developed this perception that Arora jeopardised the latter’s chances of being appointed to the top post of the head of the police and chose to make “wild and baseless allegations”.

Interestingly, Chattopadhyaya was named DGP of Punjab in late 2021 at the insistence of then Congress state chief Navjot Singh Sidhu.

During the hearing on Tuesday, senior advocate RS Rai appeared and received notice on behalf of Gupta.

The court posted the matter for hearing on May 4 and also sought a report from the Punjab government in the suicide case of Chadha, in which probe against Chattopadhyaya was stayed on April 4, 2018.