JALANDHAR: Criticizing the appointment of Sumedh Saini as Punjab DGP while superseding five officers senior to him even as charges are framed against him in abduction and elimination case former Congress MLA Sukhpal Khaira has said that Chief Justice of India and Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court should intervene as it was in violation of Supreme Court directives.
“Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has chosen to blatantly break the oath of office – to work according to the constitution and law – on the very first day by inducting Bibi Jagir Kaur as Cabinet Minister and appointing Sumedh Saini as both are facing trial in serious criminal cases,’ said Khaira while addressing a press conference here on Friday. He pointed out that by appointing Saini as DGP Punjab, Badal flouted the Supreme Court directions in the Parkash Singh & others vs Union of India Writ Petition (Civil) 310 of 1996 which mandated that DGP of the state would be selected by the government from amongst the three senior most officers. Moreover Saini stood chargesheeted in the court of special Judge CBI, Tees Hazari Court, Delhi under sections 342,343,364,120-B of IPC for kidnapping and eliminating three persons.
“Can a DGP himself charged with such serious offences deliver justice, asks the Congress party? Infact Saini has been rewarded for falsely implicating Capt. Amarinder Singh in the City Centre Scam of Ludhiana,” he said. He said that Saini has been appointed as DGP even as another SC judgement in Niranjan Singh Vs P.R. Kharote’s case (1980) held that such officer should have been suspended. The order said “that a responsible government shall have placed police officers against whom serious charges had been framed by a criminal court under suspension unless exceptional circumstances suggesting a contrary course exist”.
He said that even according to the Punjab Police Act, 2007 Saini should have been placed under suspension. He quoted section 15 (b) of the Act which held “Provided that an officer may be removed or transferred by the competent authority from his post before the expiry of the said tenure, if he is- convicted or against whom, charges having been framed, by a court of law” “This makes it amply clear that such a chargesheeted officer cannot hold such a prime post as has been done in case of Sumedh Saini, IPS,” he argued.
News Source: Times of India
