A 1988 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota will be Punjab’s new officiating Director General of Police (DGP).
An official order issued by the home department on Saturday said Sahota has been given the additional charge of the Punjab DGP till the time the current DGP Dinkar Gupta is on leave. Gupta had on Friday proceeded on one month leave amid the exercise to appoint a new head of the police force.
Official sources said Sahota has been given additional charge of the DGP as the state government needs to go through the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for the appointment of the DGP.
The Supreme Court in 2018 had laid down the procedure for the appointment of the DGP of a state.
It said a state government had to send a panel of five or more officers to the UPSC three months before the retirement of the incumbent DGP. The UPSC was authorised to form a panel of three officers based on the candidate’s length of service, record and range of service.
The apex court in March 2019 revised the orders saying officers with six months of service could be empanelled.
Sahota was head of the first special investigation team (SIT)formed to investigate the incidents of theft and sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib in Punjab in 2015 and death of two anti-sacrilege protestors in subsequent police firing. Till now, he was a special DG of Punjab Armed Police Jalandhar.
Earlier on Thursday, the Channi government had appointed a 1990 batch IAS officer, Anirudh Tiwari, as the chief secretary, in place of the 1987-batch IAS officer Vini Mahajan. Mahajan is the wife of DGP Dinkar Gupta.