At least six senior officers of Punjab Police are likely to come under the scanner of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for having links with Devinder Singh,who is the main accused in the Rs 1.50-crore graft case along with BJP MLA Raj Khurana. The officers who are under the lens of the premier investigating agency include a Director General of Police-level officer,three officers in the rank of Additional Director General of Police and two others in the rank of Deputy Inspector General of Police. These senior police officers were in regular touch with Devinder over phone. The CBI has their call details and is now verifying whether they were in touch with him for land deals or something else. If we find any reason or evidence,we might call the officers one by one for questioning, said a CBI officer on condition of anonymity. Sources said one of the police officers had told people to invest money with Devinder in his new projects and a few people had invested money as the police officer stood verbal guarantor for the investment. In another interesting development,it has come to light that the Security Wing of the Punjab Police on January 29,2010 had ordered to issue one gunman to Devinder Singh. The then Additional Director General of Police (Security) GD Pandey had issued orders that Singh should be given a gunman. Significantly,the orders issued by Pandey were directly sent to the superintendent of the wing who further sent them to the Commandant of 82 battalion of Punjab Armed Police. Then,on February 9,last year,the battalion allotted gunman Jagtar Singh to Devinder for a period of three months. No verification of threat perception was taken from the intelligence wing or the district police in violation of set procedures. Yesterday,the security wing of Punjab Police issued a letter to Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh,commandant of the 82 battalion of Punjab Armed Police,asking him why the gunman was not withdrawn after three months as the orders were for a specified period. The CBI officials took this file with them from the state police yesterday. When contacted,ADGP GD Pandey who is now posted as ADGP (Home Guards),said,Many applications and requests come and I give security; I cannot remember like this. Later on he said,I had issued these orders for giving security to Devinder for only three months and also issued simultaneous orders that the threat perception of Devinder Singh should be got assessed from the intelligence and district police. Then I got transferred from that wing after one-and-a-half months,the intelligence report had not come by that time. It was for the security wing to get the report and take the final decision on the security of Devinder as it was given for only three months. A review meeting was held after every couple of months. SM Sharma ADGP (Security) said,We have some time back made a committee of officers who decide to whom security should be given or not,so that such incidents do not happen. Sources said that many gunmen have been given to the police by the state police officers unofficially and they carry on as there is no check.
