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Punjab: HC directs trial court to defer proclaimed offender proceeding of suspended cop Raj Jit by a week
Punjab and Haryana high court has stayed the proceedings of declaring sacked police officer Raj Jit Singh Hundal a proclaimed offender for a week. Hundal is seeking a CBI probe into cases where his role and allegations are being investigated. He was dismissed by the state government on drug charges and is also facing a vigilance bureau probe into assets allegedly amassed by him. The plea alleges factionalism in the Punjab Police and claims Hundal is being made a "scapegoat" in a tug of war between two factions.
Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday stayed the proceedings of declaring sacked police officer Raj Jit Singh Hundal a proclaimed offender for a week.
“The limited relief we grant is that the said magistrate shall defer the issuance of taking a call on the proclamation on July 15 for a period of one week, since the petitioner’s right would be adversely affected, if he is declared a proclaimed offender and his right to seek anticipatory bail would be affected on this sole ground,” said the order issued by bench of Justice GS Sandhawalia on Wednesday.
The bench was hearing the petition moved by Hundal seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into cases where his role and allegations against the former assistant inspector general (AIG) is being investigated.
The plea demands constitution of a special investigating team comprising officers outside Punjab to investigate and look into the “genesis and aftermath of the accusations and nature of cases being foisted against the petitioner.” The alternative prayer is of CBI probe into the same.
He was dismissed by the state government on April 17 on “drug charges — colluding with smugglers and framing innocent persons in false cases and running an extortion racket along with another cop, Inderjit Singh”. He is also facing a vigilance bureau probe into assets allegedly amassed by him by selling narcotics and under Prevention of Corruption Act.
The plea says it is required to be ensured that the purported investigations aimed at curbing the drug menace in the state does not get reduced to a mere instrument of oppression, misuse and the “blatant abuse at the hands of certain vested interests for wholly extraneous mala fide and vexatious considerations.”
The plea alleges that there had been a tug-of-war between various sets of high-ranking officials in the Punjab Police, which had led to a grave chasm percolating from the top to the bottom. It is a matter of grave concern that the factionalism in the Punjab Police had stooped to the lowest level, it alleges adding that he was being made a “scapegoat” in the tug of war between two factions of the state police.
