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House privilege panel summons ex-Tarn Taran police chief SSP Chauhan
Ex-Tarn Taran police chief told to appear before committee on Oct 10 over local MLA Sohal’s complaint of ‘misbehaviour’ by DSP, SHO with AAP volunteers
The Punjab assembly privilege committee on Tuesday summoned the recently transferred Tarn Taran SSP Gurmeet Singh Chauhan in a complaint filed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Dr Kashmir Singh Sohal.
Chauhan has been told to appear before the privilege panel on October 10.
The SSP’s summoning comes days after he was transferred following his run-in with AAP’s Khadoor Sahib MLA Manjinder Singh Lalpura over the arrest of latter’s brother-in-law Nishan Singh in an alleged illegal mining case. While Chauhan was shunted out, five other cops, including an SHO and a CIA-incharge, were suspended on September 28.
Tarn Taran MLA Sohal had lodged complaint before Vidhan Sabha speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan alleging misbehavior with his party volunteers by then Tarn Taran DSP (city) Jaspal Singh and then Chabhal SHO Gurcharan Singh. Talking to HT, Sohal said: “On July 31, I had called DSP-city and SHOs of police posts falling under my constituency at my office to talk about drugs and law and order issues. During the meeting, some AAP volunteers came there and started raising slogans. The DSP and SHO Chabal misbehaved with the volunteers. The two cops also challenged me to transfer them after I tried to intervene.”
Sohal said he had brought the issue to the notice of the then SSP Chauhan but he failed to resolve it following which the MLA moved the privilege committee.
“While DSP Jaspal and SHO Gurcharan appeared before the committee, the SSP has been summoned on October 10, said a member of the privilege panel, pleading anonymity. “The DSP and the SHO have apologised. We have them to talk to the MLA,” he added.
“We appeared before the committee and presented our side…The MLA has now assured us that it is just a formality and he will tell the committee that a compromise has been reached. It’s not an issue right now,” said DSP Jaspal, who has been transferred to Patti.
The Vidhan Sabha committee is headed by MLA Kulwant Singh Pandoori.
(With inputs from HTC Chandigarh)
