Speaker seeks report on tainted cops from home secretary

Punjab Vidhan Sabha speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan has said that he has increased the ambit of the report on ‘tainted’ cops and asked the home secretary to submit the report in this regard. After summoning the director general of police (DGP) to submit a report on an ASI (Bohar Singh) for helping a gangster for bribe, Sandhwan said he issued directions to the home secretary on the demand raised by many MLAs in the assembly. “Black sheep need to be punished and we have set the ball rolling,” he said.

On being asked if the DGP has submitted the report as asked by him, Sandhwan said he didn’t want to pinpoint on a single name, but wants to correct the system so asked the home secretary to prepare a list of such black sheep and suggest action against them. “I have directed the home aecretary to submit the report by end of this week,” he told HT.

The assembly, in an unprecedented move, had on Monday summoned the DGP for Tuesday, asking him to submit a report in a matter in which a cop had allegedly accepted gratification from a gangster apparently with the purpose to hush up a case.

Sandhwan had asked the members to give their opinion to get rid of rampant corruption in the state while referring to an incident in which an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Bohar Singh, posted in Kotkapura, had allegedly accepted bribe from a gangster through a bank transfer.

Later, Aam Aadmi party (AAP) MLA Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh told the House that the mafia plays a big role and it drives the government. According to him, to get rid of corruption there should be frequent transfers because that breaks the nexus. Singh suggested transfer of every policeman after 18 months or two years.

Pargat Singh of the Congress had said the government needs to wipe the black sheep out of the police force. He suggested dope test for the cops at the junior level because, according to him, two to three police personnel in every police station are addicted to drugs.