Acting DGP summons probe team to iron out differences

Prabodh Kumar is not head of team, says govt notification on its formation; SAD says will move Election Commission as its orders to shift IG Kunwar Vijay were not followed

With the rift in the special investigation team (SIT) probing the 2015 police firing cases putting the Captain Amarinder Singh-led government in a tight spot, acting director general of police (DGP) VK Bhawara called a meeting of all the five team members on Monday to iron out differences among them, it is learnt.

IG Kunwar Vijay Pratap (HT Photo)

It is being seen as a damagecontrol move by the government after four SIT members wrote to DGP Dinkar Gupta and dissociated themselves from the chargesheet filed by their colleague IG Kunwar Vijay Pratap in a Faridkot court on May 28 in the Kotkapura firing case.

One of the SIT members confirmed the development.

DGP (intelligence) Bhawra, who is holding the charge of the state police chief as Gupta is on leave, will listen to the SIT members and is likely to submit a report to chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh the same day.

Bhawra’s decision to summon the SIT members comes in the wake of the criticism the state government faced after fissures in the probe team came out in the open. A government spokesperson, however, has termed it a routine meeting in which the acting DGP will review the case proceedings so far.

DIFFERENCES NOT NEW

The rift in the SIT is not new as earlier the differences among its members were resolved after the intervention of senior officials, it is learnt.

The rift cropped up in the team for the first time in November last year over summoning of former CM Parkash Singh Badal, his son Sukhbir Badal and actor Akshay Kumar. The summons was issued by Kunwar Vijay even as ADGP Prabodh Kumar, the senior most SIT member, was not in favour of the summoning Badal senior.

Then there were differences over the place of questioning of Sukhbir who was quizzed in the Punjab Police headquarters in Chandigarh. Some of the SIT members were in favour of questioning him at his residence.

The SIT was also divided in the Behbal Kalan police firing case whether to name the Faridkot-based Sohail Singh Brar, at whose house bullets were fired on a police vehicle to create fake evidence in favour of the police party led by then Moga SSP Charanjit Sharma.

‘PRABODH LIKE ANY OTHER MEMBER’

ADGP Prabodh Kumar, who is believed to have conveyed the resentment of the four other members to the DGP, is not the head of SIT, as per a state government notification dated September 10, 2018, on its formation.

It says he is just a member of the team along with Kunwar Vijay, IG (crime) Arun Pal Singh, Kapurthala SSP Satinder Singh and Bhupinder Singh, a PPS officer.

SAD GETS FRESH AMMO

The rift has given fresh ammunition to the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) which has been claiming that IG Kunwar was biased against them and was not carrying out a fair probe.

“Since day one, we have been saying that he was taking directions from his political masters in the Congress government and the only agenda is to show the Akali Dal in a bad light. The cat is out of the bag now. It has become clear as why the government protected Kunwar and did not adhere to the directions of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to transfer him out of the SIT,” said party spokesperson Maheshinder Grewal.

He said the party will move ECI as the state government has not followed the election watchdog’s April 8 order to shift the IG out of SIT.

PLOY TO PROTECT BADALS : CHEEMA

Leader of opposition in the Punjab assembly, Harpal Singh Cheema, slammed the state government for putting hurdles in the way of a fair probe by SIT.

Cheema, in a press release, said ‘objections’ raised by other members against Kunwar Vijay at a time when a ‘challan’ was filed against the accused, was a mere design to derail the justice delivery and protect the highprofile accused.