On Sunday, Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu asked that Punjab’s police chief and attorney general be replaced, claiming that the state’s governing party will lose face if they are not. The names of ten police officers have already been given to the Centre, according to Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi. After the state government receives three selected names from the Centre, he will choose an “excellent” person as director general of police (DGP) after consulting Mr. Sidhu, ministers, and MLAs.
The news comes three days after Mr. Sidhu and Mr. Channi attended a meeting. It was resolved to establish a coordination group for prior consultation on all crucial state government issues. When questioned about Mr. Sidhu’s proposal to change the state police chief and the attorney general, Mr. Channi told reporters on the sidelines of a government function in Morinda that a regular DGP had yet to be nominated.
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For the appointment of a regular DGP, the state government has forwarded the names of ten police officials to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). The UPSC will give the names of three officers to the state government, which will choose one of them for the position after examining their service records and other conditions. In response to a query, Mr. Channi stated that his government would work with everyone and perform honestly.
He wants Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota, a senior IPS officer who was given the additional duty of DGP in Punjab after the former state police head, Dinkar Gupta, went on leave, removed. Mr. Sahota was the chairman of a special investigation team (SIT) set up by the state’s then-Akali-BJP administration in 2015 to look into sacrilege occurrences.
On Thursday, Mr. Sidhu went after Sahota, accusing him of wrongfully indicting two Sikh men in a sacrilege case while giving the Badal family a pass. The former cricketer-turned-politician has also questioned A S Deol’s selection as the state’s new advocate general. Mr. Deol was the lawyer for former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini after the police gunfire aftermath of sacrilege incidents in 2015. Mr. Sidhu stated on Saturday that whether he has a position or not, he will stand with Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
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“Will support Gandhi’s and Shastri’s beliefs. @RahulGandhi & @priyankagandhi will be supported, post or no post! Allow all evil forces to try to destroy me; nevertheless, with every ounce of good energy, Punjab, Punjabiyat (Universal Brotherhood), and every Punjabi will triumph, “He had tweeted on Mahatma Gandhi’s and former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s birthdays. The Punjab Congress has been rocked again by Mr. Sidhu’s sudden departure. Following a heated power struggle between Mr. Sidhu and Mr. Singh, Congress replaced Amarinder Singh as Punjab’s chief minister with Mr. Channi.
