The Sikh police officer at the centre of the “Khalistani” slur controversy in West Bengal, Jaspreet Singh, is a 2016-batch IPS officer who is presently serving as the special superintendent in the intelligence branch. Singh, who retaliated after being called “Khalistani” while he was speaking to a group of protesting state BJP leaders and workers being led by Opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday, is part of a special team deployed by the West Bengal Police to maintain law and order and investigate complaints by villagers in Sandeshkhali, which has been at the centre of a political storm in the state’s North 24 Parganas district. On Tuesday, Singh was among the police officers in charge of maintaining law and order and ensuring that prohibitory orders under Section 144 were not violated, police sources said. Singh was the superintendent of police in Islampur police district earlier. He has also served in the special task force of the Siliguri Police Commissionerate and was the Bidhannagar zone deputy commissioner. Singh also worked as an additional SP in Raigunj police district. Repeated calls and messages to Singh went unanswered. “I have never faced such a situation in Bengal. I have never heard such unparliamentary words from an elected representative,” Singh told a news channel in Punjab late Tuesday. “Some representatives of a political party had come there and their leader was Suvendu Adhikari. An order of Section 144 had been issued and there was discussion going on regarding legalities. During this legal discussion, he used a word for me “Khalistani”. I countered them for the usage of this word, following which they went on the back foot,” he added. “I was the only Sikh officer deputed there.and making a comment like that after seeing a turban is unparliamentary language and illegal under IPC. After that, we received a court order, and in lieu of that we allowed them to go. This was the incident. I told them action will be taken,” Singh said. While the Bengal police said in a statement that it was Adhikari who called Singh a “Khalistani”, he denied the charge, saying no one from the BJP had used the word and that they respected the Sikh community. On Wednesday, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann wrote in a post on X that the incident was “extremely unfortunate”. “The BJP perhaps does not know the sacrifices made by the Punjabis in getting freedom for India and preserving it. The BJP should apologise to the Punjabis,” Mann said in Punjabi. Earlier, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had condemned the incident and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had come out in support of Singh.
