CHANDIGARH: Who is more powerful in today’s Punjab the state Governor or the station house officer of the police.
A recent sequence of events shows that SHO Ajaib Singh of Mohali police station is more powerful than Governor Ma!hotra Malhotra ordered the suspension of Ajaib Singh last week on the ground that he tortured Gurpreet Singh Cheema President of the state unit of the state Yuva Janata Dal (S) after arresting him in a false case.
The Yuva Janata Dal general secretary after meeting the governor reported to the press that Malhotra had also directed Secretary Tejinder Khanna to hold an enquiry into the torture incident.
The governor’s assurance followed a gherao of Raj Bhavan by 300 Yuva Janata Dal workers. Two days later the chief secretary denied the suspension of the SHO presumably after Prime Minister’s office vetoed his suspension on the ground that it would bring down police morale.
The governor kept quiet over the embarrassment caused to him in the process.
Captain Vikram Singha Punjab Janata Dal-S leader told reporters On Feb 28 that the entire Janata Dal-S unit of Punjab would resign if the SHO was not suspended by March 10. He said no action was taken against guilty police officers. Vikram Singh said he would also meet the Prime Minister. He also condemned the killing of six innocent Sikh farmers in Amritsar by the Army and measures to gag the press in Punjab and Chandigarh.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 8, 1991
