Chadha suicide: HC stays Punjab Police probe against DGP Chattopadhyaya
In his plea, Chattopadhyaya’s has blamed DGP Suresh Arora, DGP (intelligence) Dinkar Gupta and IG (crime) LK Yadav for dragging his name in the suicide case.
The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday stayed investigation against Punjab director general of police (human resource development) Siddharth Chattopadhyaya into the suicide case of Inderpreet Chadha, son of former Chief Khalsa Diwan president Charanjit Singh Chadha. The special investigation team (SIT) under inspector general of police (IGP crime) LK Yadav was conducting the probe.
The high court bench of justice Surya Kant acted on Chattopadhyaya’s plea in which he has blamed three top officers — DGP Suresh Arora, DGP (intelligence) Dinkar Gupta and Yadav — for dragging his name in the suicide case.
Inderpreet committed suicide on January 3 after his father got embroiled in a video scandal. The SIT had sent two questionnaires to Chattopadhyaya on his role in the case.
The high court summoned record of the Chadha suicide case by April 23 and asked state’s advocate general Atul Nanda to seek instructions on the controversy, besides restraining the SIT to proceed in the FIR against Chattopadhyaya. The court, however, said the investigation may continue against other suspects. Chattopadhyaya has sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The high court had appointed Chattopadhyaya to probe the role of Moga senior superintendent of police (SSP) Raj Jit Singh in a drug case and to investigate the complicity between officials with drug traffickers.
The DGP (HRD) submitted two reports on February 1 and March 15 in the high court. Chattopadhyaya alleged that he was being falsely implicated by the SIT under Yadav at the behest of senior officers whose role was under the scanner for being closely associated with the Moga SSP.
Chattopadhyaya alleged that Arora and Gupta’s role came to light during the drug case probe. DGP (HRD) claimed that he was also conducting an investigation into a benami property allegedly acquired by a DGP-level official in Chandigarh’s Sector 16. Both Arora and Gupta are supervisory officers and career progression of SIT members is in their hands, he told the court.
“The FIR is just a ruse to pressurise me and to change the course of investigation,” Chattopadhyaya claimed, adding that it all started after he submitted his first report in the drug case before the high court on February 1.
He claimed that their idea was to embarrass him and second questionnaire in the Inderpreet suicide case does not have any relevance to it.
The court was told that Chattopadhyaya’s name neither figures in the suicide note nor in the FIR. Inderpreet had commented against Chattopadhyaya in his daily diary as he was a member of the NRI Commission which dealt with a dispute between a woman and Inderpreet, the court was told. He said an adverse order was passed by the NRI Commission presided over by justice RK Garg (retd) against Inderpreet, after the DGP (HRD) had left the commission in 2016.