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Punjab Police register FIR in ADGP Asthana’s letter leak episode
The FIR was registered under Section 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) of the IPC and 72 of IT Act, 2020, against unidentified person(s) around 10 days after ADGP Asthana purportedly wrote to the DGP
Punjab Police on Monday registered an FIR in connection with the leak of a letter purportedly written by Bureau of Investigation (BoI) chief ADGP SK Asthana to then Punjab officiating DGP Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota wherein he reportedly had expressed his inability to register a case against former Akali minister Bikram Majithia in a drug case. Facing embarrassment over the leak, chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi last week had announced that a case will be registered.
The FIR was registered under Section 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) of the IPC and 72 of IT Act, 2020, against unidentified person(s) on the complaint of BoI’s assistant inspector general at the cyber crime police station in Mohali.
In the letter, Asthana had taken a stand against booking senior Shiromani Akali Dal leader and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia on the basis of a 2018 special task force (STF) report lying in a sealed cover with the high court.
The four pages of the December 11 letter addressed to the DGP were shared with the media from a foreign telephone number. The letter was sent to various media houses and also posted on Twitter under an account named ‘Hawk Mark’.
Asthana wrote to the DGP before availing two-day medical leave and two days later he was admitted to a Mohali hospital amid reports of pressure on him to give nod for action against Majithia.
Asthana had sought clarity if it would be legally tenable to act upon the report of the STF head when the same lies in sealed cover with the high court.
