The Department of Home Affairs and Justice today served a two-page notice seeking an explanation from ADGP Security A.P. Bhatnagar for his alleged “scandalous, political and indisciplined” remarks against the Government carried in an exclusive interview with The Indian Express on July 2.The notice lays particular stress on the allegations made by Bhatnagar that ‘‘the investigation was taken away from us as it was feared that Bedi would make disclosures about the missing Rs 2 crore from the locker of the Punjab and Sindh Bank’s Sector 22 branch. “The locker was cleaned out sometime before Sidhu was arrested. Though the suspicion was that it was paid to someone high up, it would have been proved or disproved had the Intelligence wing continued to interrogate Bedi.’’Bhatnagar, an IPS officer of the 1968 batch, has been given seven days time to file a reply to the explanation sought from him on the interview given to this newspaper. The Home Department has asked Bhatnagar, the former chief of the Punjab Police Intelligence Wing, to show why disciplinary proceedings be not initiated against him under various sections of the All India Services Conduct Rules.The chargesheeting of Bhatnagar will be the next stage of the disciplinary proceedings if the Government does not find his reply satisfactory. Bhatnagar was not available for comment this evening.Bhatnagar had led the Intelligence wing team that planned a trap to nab ex-PPSC chairman Ravinder Paul Singh Sidhu and the subsequent arrest of his touts. However, Bhatnagar and his team were transferred out on Thursday.
