Sendinga strong message that laxity in enforcing law and order will not be tolerated,the Punjab Home Department on Thursday suspended five top cops, including anInspector General of Police (IGP), on account of having ‘links’ with some drugsmugglers.
Thesuspended senior police officers include controversial inspector general (IG)Paramraj Singh Umranangal (who was already under suspension in a police firingcase related to sacrilege incidents), AIG Varinderjit Singh Thind, SP SewaSingh Malli, DSP Parminder Singh Bath and DSP Karan Sher Singh, for theiralleged links with sarpanch Gurdeep Singh Rano, who was arrested last year bythe special task force (STF) for running a high-profile drug nexus in thestate.
Theseorders of suspension were issued on a report submitted by the Special TaskForce (STF) of the Punjab Police on a police-drug smuggler nexus.
Sourcesin the Punjab Police informed that in the coming days, the Punjab Governmentwould identify more such ‘Black Sheep’ among the policemen, and a strict actionwill be taken against them
TheCaptain Amarinder-led-Congress government has completed four years in Punjab.Recently, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had held a press conference inChandigarh wherein he presented the four years report card of his government.
TheCM then during the media interaction boosted having successfully broken thebackbone of the drugs chain in the state, which he had actually pledged to dowith Gutka Sahib in his hands. However, terming CM’s statement, a ‘U-turn’ onhis promise of eradicating drugs, the opposition parties i.e. AAP and SADtargeted Congress government over its failure of eliminating drug menace andsaid that ‘drugs’ are still openly sold in the markets of Punjab and police arewell aware of the fact.
Interestingly,the suspension orders have come at a point when it’s an election year, sourcessay earlier, in 2017-18, the then STF Chief (who reportedly is now on study leave)had named some senior police officers running this nexus, therefore, chancesare Punjab Government would lead this crackdown by hunting down all thoseinvolved.
Asthere were reports that Varinderjit Singh Thind, during the previous SAD-BJPgovernment, provided gunmen to Rano and even invested in Rano’s liquorbusiness, therefore, the probe is on whether the money invested by thesuspended cop came from drugs business only, said sources adding that morepolice officials and politicians are expected to be questioned in the comingdays.
“CaptainAmarinder Singh is clear on his stand that Punjab Government has zero tolerancepolicy against drugs, the Punjab Police is committed to eradicate the drugmenace from the state”, said sources.
Headded that during the first week of March, the DGP Punjab launched a driveagainst drugs and recovered 16Kg heroin, 35Kg opium, 46Kg ganja, 12 quintalspoppy husk and 4.61 lakh intoxicant pills/capsules among other drugs aftersearch operations in drug affected areas beside laying nakas at vulnerableroutes across the state”, further adding that 34 Proclaimed Offenders (POs) ofNDPS cases were arrested, and soon some big fishes are under the radar.