PM security breach: Two top cops stare at demotion, dismissal; pension cut for ex-DGP

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann Monday ordered the state’s Personnel Department to initate disciplinary proceedings for major penalty agaisnt S Chattopadhyaya (former DGP), Inderbir Singh (then DIG Ferozepur Range), Harmandeep Singh Hans (then SSP Ferozpur). The CM also ordered that explanations be called from Naresh Arora (then ADGP Law & Order), G Nageswara Rao (then ADGP Cyber Crime), Mukhvinder Singh Chhina (then IGP Patiala Range), Rakesh Agrawal (then IG Counter Intelligence-cum-ASLO and Nodal Officer), Surjeet Singh (then DIG Faridkot, now retired), and Charanjit Singh (then SSP Moga) as to why disciplinary proceedings should not be initiated against them.

Chattopadhyaya has since retired, Inderbir Singh is posted as DIG (Admn) PAP, Phillaur, and Harmandeep Hans as AIG counter-intelligence.

Sources said that major penalty included dismissal, demotion in case of serving officials and reduction in pension in case of those retired.

“These officers will be given an opportunity to present their side. The action will be taken after that,” Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Janjua told The Indian Express.

Sources said that the government would take a lenient view of former chief secretary Anirudh Tewari although the CM has yet not ordered anything on him. “We may ask him for an explanation as he was not much at fault,” said a government functionary privy to the developments.

The government will now write a Demi-official letter to Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India on the action taken.

The MHA on March 10 had written to the Punjab government seeking an action report against the erring officers and highlighting the reasons behind the delay.

The report was submitted on August 25 last year, but the state government had failed to take any action. The Supreme Court had ordered the inquiry after PM’s convoy was stranded for half an hour on a flyover when he was travelling by road from Bathinda airport to National Martyrs Memorial in Ferozepur on January 5, 2022.

A senior government functionary said that if an officer is found wanting in duty and accused of a lapse of a serious nature like breach in security of a Prime Minister, he can be dismissed from the service or can be let off by issuing of a warning. There are nine options of penalty. The most serious is dismissal from service. Others are demotion, withholding of one increment, withholding of all increments besides others. We will see what penalty would be slapped on them.

The SC report indicted Anirudh Tewari for “not deputing any officer to travel with the PM’s convoy.”

Tewari, however, explained to the panel that he had appointed “Hussan Lal, the then principal secretary to the CM, to accompany the PM’s convoy as the nominee of the chief secretary, but Lal tested Covid-positive and could not accompany Modi.”

The report said that Tewari could have easily deputed a senior officer to accompany PM’s cavalcade as PM’s route was already known a day prior to his visit. The then Divisional commissioner RK Kaushik was available at Bathinda airport and could have accompanied the PM.

It said that the chief secretary convened a meeting on December 29, 2021, but did not follow up after that to ensure that all agencies concerned were working in coordination and implementing decisions taken in the first meeting.

Post such visits, the Blue Book requires a coordination meeting to be convened by the chief secretary to assess the adequacy of the arrangements made and suggest improvement for future visits. This was also not done.

The report indicted the Punjab Police for being “casual” and “negligent” and called the incident “a colossal failure in planning and coordination”.

Indicting Chattopadhyaya, the report said, “The entire attitude of the DGP was one of indifference and dereliction of duty. It appears the DGP did not take any steps to brief field officers, hold coordination meetings. He did not concern himself with the planning of contingency routes at all, even though the Blue Book requires the DGP to be actively involved in the formation of route plans. The failure on the part of the DGP to appoint a nominee to accompany the carcade from Bathinda to Ferozepur is reflective of his complete indifference and apathy to the visit of the PM”.
The report also said that he even “passed the buck.”