CHANDIGARH: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) senior Senior leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Leader of Opposition (LoP), Harpal Singh Cheema has said that the investigations relating to the ‘police gangs’ involved in extending patronage to the reining ‘drug lords’ in the state be handed over to the Special Task Force (STF) headed by Harpreet Singh Sidhu.
In a statement issued from party headquarters on Monday, Cheema said the revelations made through videos by some upright officials of the police department in the recent past, which went viral on social media could not be ignored altogether. Cheema said that Fatehgarh Sahib Police Head Constable Rachhpal Singh (in police uniform) went live on social media, stating that on August 19, Harvinder Singh, a brother of sitting sarpanch of maulepur village, was nabbed red-handed possessing 4200 drug tablets and 150 drug injections.
Quoting Rachhpal Singh as saying, the AAP leader said that inspite of the mounting political pressure; he went ahead with registering against him under the relevant sections. This brave cop, instead of getting a pat on the back for the daring act of chivalry, started getting threats from the who’s who of the police departmental top brass and politics, besides getting threats for life from the mafia lords. This led to the suspension of upright police official Rachhpal Singh, following which he was left with no choice by to resort to social media handle.
Cheema further said that taking a serious note of the development, a team of the party leaders was deputed by president Bhagwant Mann under the leadership of Gagandeep Singh Chadha, which visited the suspended cop Rachhpal Singh at his village Main Kalan (Samana). A distraught Rachhpal told the visiting AAP team leaders that he had seized drug narcotics worth million during his postings at various places, for which he had been honoured by the department. “But this time around it was suspension and threat to life”.
Cheema said that this was not the first-of-its-kind case wherein 'police gangs' conniving with drug mafia lords were targeting the police officers and personnel of the department who were fighting tooth and nail against drugs, citing and example of a top rank police officer at Khanna police station intimidating an honest officer on the instance of political big wig. Cheema demanded that investigation into such incidents be handed over to the
Cheema said such instances had proved that the police protection had been responsible for giving more teeth to the drug mafia in Punjab state. Cheema said that during AAP would carry forward its campaign against the mighty drug mafia and those under whose patronage it had been gaining ground in the state.