Suspension of Punjab cop over jailbreak revoked

The Punjab government has reinstated additional director general of police (ADGP) MK Tiwari, who was suspended in a knee-jerk reaction in the wake of the sensational Nabha jailbreak.

The Punjab government has reinstated additional director general of police (ADGP) MK Tiwari, who was suspended in a knee-jerk reaction in the wake of the sensational Nabha jailbreak.

A view of the maximum-security Nabha jail from where six inmates including two terrorists escaped. (HT File Photo)

Tiwari, a 1987-batch IPS officer, was ADGP (Jails) when six prisoners, including Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) chief Harminder Singh Mintoo, escaped from the high-security prison on November 27.

While Mintoo was nabbed by Delhi Police from a railway station in the national capital a day after he escaped, Uttar Pradesh Police on November 27 arrested the alleged ‘mastermind’, Palwinder Singh, from Kairana in Uttar Pradesh’s Shamli district.

On the other hand, Punjab Police is yet to make any headway or arrest that has again raised eyebrows on the functioning of the police.

The decision to suspend Tiwari had evoked strong reactions from a section of the senior police officers, bureaucrats and from within the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal. And within the police too, eyebrows were raised over making an honest officer a scapegoat.