Punjab writes to MHA, asks for witness statements: ‘to proceed against officers’

“Copies of the statement of the witnesses are to be provided to the delinquent officers to seek their replies as part of the proceedings against them,” said another officer.

As per a senior officer, “Majority of the witnesses named in the case are or were gazetted officers of Punjab who were involved in the planning and execution of the Prime Minister’s visit to the state”.

Punjab Home Secretary Gurkirat Kirpal Singh, when asked about state home department’s correspondence to MHA, said, “I am not aware of this. I will have to check.”

The Supreme Court had ordered the inquiry and appointed Justice Malhotra as chief of a five-member committee after PM’s convoy was stranded for 15-20 minutes on a flyover when he was travelling by road to Ferozepur from Bathinda on January 5, 2022.

The panel submitted its report on August 25, 2022, indicting a number of Punjab Police officers for being “casual” and “negligent” and calling the incident “a colossal failure in planning and coordination”.

In March 2023, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann ordered the state’s Personnel Department to initiate disciplinary proceedings for major penalty against S Chattopadhyaya (who was then DGP), Inderbir Singh (then DIG Ferozepur Range), Harmandeep Singh Hans (then SSP Ferozpur).

Earlier this year, Punjab government appointed former judge of Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice Sant Parkash, who is serving as Punjab State Human Rights Commission chairperson, as inquiry officer for the disciplinary proceedings against the above-mentioned three officers.