Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday dismissed a Punjab Police Service (PPS) officer Raj Jit Singh and ordered a vigilance probe against his disproportionate assets on the basis of a report about an alleged nexus between police officers and drug traffickers in the state.
“No one involved in drug trafficking will be spared.. After scrutinising the sealed envelope reports, Rajjit Singh PPS (Punjab Police Service) is nominated in the drug trafficking case and immediately dismissed from the job to investigate the money laundering proceeds …” the CM said in a tweet.
The action came after three reports, prepared by Anti-Drug Special Investigation Force, were opened on Raj Jit’s alleged collusion with dismissed cop Inderjit Singh, who planted money on the innocent to extort money and helped drug smugglers by leaving loopholes in the investigation.
Inderjit was arrested by Additional DGP Harpreet Sidhu-led STF on drugs in 2018 during Capt Amarinder Singh’s government. No action was taken against Raj Jit.
Three sealed cover reports regarding the role of police officials in the drug trade in the state were opened by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on 28 March.
These reports were submitted on February 1, 2018, March 15, 2018 and May 8, 2018 by the Special Investigation Team, formed by the high court. The reports had been lying in the court since then.
After these reports were opened in the High Court last month, Mann had said the state government will soon initiate action against those named in the report pertaining to drug trade in the state and those who have ruined youth of Punjab through drugs won’t be spared.
The CM said the drug trade which had flourished during the previous Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (SAD-BJP) and Congress regimes had ruined the future generations of the state.
He said the affluent leaders of both these parties had patronised this illegal trade in connivance of bureaucrats and drug smugglers to mint money illegally. Mann said the perpetrators of this heinous crime will not be spared at any cost and they will be put behind the bars.
The CM said the probe report on this issue had been hanging in fire since long as none of the previous government was sincere to take action against those forces which had ruined the future of Punjab.
Mann had said exemplary action will be taken against those people whose hands are drenched with the blood of countless youth who fell prey to drug menace.