The Election Commission of India directed the suspension of Tarn Taran SSP Dr Ravjot Kaur Grewal with immediate effect on Saturday and gave Amritsar Commissioner of Police Gurpreet Singh Bhullar the additional charge as Tarn Taran district police chief.
The action comes three days before the Tarn Taran assembly by-election on November 11 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.
An SAD delegation also met the Chief Electoral Officer of Punjab in Chandigarh and submitted a complaint in this regard. The SAD alleged that the AAP government was misusing the state police machinery to influence the by-election process.
In their memorandum, SAD leaders claimed that party workers and leaders from Tarn Taran had been “forcibly detained” by police officials. They alleged that the official machinery was being misused to target SAD candidate Sukhwinder Kaur Randhawa, her family members and SAD supporters.
Badal alleged that surveillance was being kept on Sukhwinder Kaur and her daughter, Kanchanpreet Kaur. He claimed that the two policemen in plainclothes recently caught following Kanchanpreet Kaur later identified themselves as members of the crime investigation agency (CIA) of the Punjab Police.
After the meeting, the chief electoral officer forwarded the complaint to the ECI, which placed the SSP 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 registering false cases against Akali leaders and workers and subjecting them brazenly to 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 a formal probe against her as well as resultant disciplinary action, including dismissal from service,” he said. Grewal was posted as Tarn Taran SSP in September.
Also read: Ahead of Tarn Taran bypoll, two Cong leaders join BJP
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