Chandigarh, April 7: The drugs matter pending before the Punjab and Haryana High Court has turned into a DGP versus DGPs case with IPS officer Siddharth Chattopadhyay on Friday placing in the dock his colleagues Suresh Arora and Dinkar Gupta before obtaining a stay in a case he was being “falsely implicated” in.
Chattopadhyay claimed that investigations carried out by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by him against an SSP in the drug case were leading him to Punjab’s top cops. He, along with two other senior officers, were directed by the High Court to look into the complicity between dismissed Inspector Inderjit Singh and Moga SSP Raj Jit Singh “to break the nexus between the law enforcement agency and drug traffickers”.
In his 10-page application, Chattopadhyay not only alleged harassment, but also claimed that the role of Punjab DGP Suresh Arora and DGP (Intelligence) Dinkar Gupta had “come to light” during the course of investigation carried out by him under the High Court directions.
“Several significant facts and pointers, including the ‘benami’ house of a DGP, are being investigated to confirm their involvement in the case with Inspector Inderjit Singh and Moga SSP Raj Jit Singh,” Chattopadhyay said, placing before the Bench six annexures in a “sealed cover”.
He said both “seniormost officers” Arora and Gupta were also supervisory officers of SIT members probing the case he was being implicated in. “The promotion, posting as well as career progression of the SIT members are in the hands of these senior officers,” he pointed out.
Chattopadhyay said he was being targeted “at the behest of senior police officers whose role was under investigation for being closely associated with Raj Jit Singh and Inderjit Singh” in a case registered on January 3 in Amritsar after Inderpreet Singh Chadha, son of the former Chief Khalsa Diwan president CS Chadha, committed suicide.
He alleged that the SIT under IGP (Crime) LK Yadav was harassing him even though he had had no connection with Chadha and was just a member of the NRI commission which had passed orders in a dispute concerning him.He said his apprehensions regarding an “unfair investigation” were strengthened when his name was dragged after he had presented the first status report before the HC.
The investigation in the suicide case was to pressure him to change the course of the probe, he claimed.After hearing him and amicus curiae Anupam Gupta, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Shekher Dhawan stayed the investigation in the suicide case related to Chattopadhyay and directed the submission of the investigation report against the other accused before the Bench.
Source Tribune India
