E-Paper
Punjab: EC suspends Tarn Taran SSP three days before byelection
Election Commission gives Amritsar commissioner of police Gurpreet Singh Bhullar additional charge of Tarn Taran district police chief.
The Election Commission of India on Saturday directed the suspension of Tarn Taran senior superintendent of police (SSP) Dr Ravjot Kaur Grewal with immediate effect.
Amritsar commissioner of police Gurpreet Singh Bhullar has been assigned the additional charge of Tarn Taran SSP, the EC directive said.
The stern action just three days before the Tarn Taran assembly by-election on November 11 came after Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal met the EC-appointed observer and submitted a written complaint of misuse of power by the SSP to help the ruling Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab.
A SAD delegation also met the chief electoral officer of Punjab in Chandigarh and submitted the complaint.
The SAD alleged that the AAP government was using the state police to influence the by-election process.
In their memorandum, the SAD leaders claimed that party workers and leaders from Tarn Taran had been “forcibly detained” by police officials ahead of the bypoll. They alleged that the official machinery was being misused to target the candidate Sukhwinder Kaur Randhawa, her family members and SAD supporters.
Badal alleged “surveillance activities” were being carried out on Sukhwinder Kaur and her daughter, Kanchanpreet Kaur. He claimed that two policemen in plainclothes were recently caught following Kanchanpreet Kaur and later identified themselves as members of the police’s crime investigation agency (CIA).
Following the meeting, the chief electoral officer forwarded the complaint to the ECI following which the SSP was placed under suspension.
Welcoming the EC’s decision, Badal said: “Grewal had been vitiating the election atmosphere in the Tarn Taran bypoll by acting as a polling agent of the AAP. She was resorting to the registration of false cases against Akali leaders and its workers and subjecting them brazenly to illegal detention and intimidation.”
Badal thanked the poll observer for acting promptly on the SAD’s complaint and for reporting the matter forcefully to the ECI.
“Grewal’s criminally partisan conduct calls for initiation of a formal probe against her as well as resultant disciplinary action including dismissal from service,” he added.
Grewal was posted as the Tarn Taran SSP in September.
While voting for the Tarn Taran bypoll will be held on November 11, the result will be announced on November 14.
The Tarn Taran assembly seat fell vacant following the death of Aam Aadmi Party MLA Kashmir Singh Sohal in June.
