Chandigarh/ Punjab (April 04, 2014): Election Commission of India (ECI) Thursday (on April 03) cleared the appointment Punjab IPS officer Suresh Arora as Director General of Police Punjab in place of Sumedh Saini, who had sent his request for grant of leave from April 4 to May 20.
It may be recalled that the Congress party was seeking removal of Sumedh Saini.
Sumedh Saini, who has a track of committing mass level human rights abuses and is facing criminal charges for murdering people in police custody, is considered close to ruling Badal Dal and the opposition Congress party was fearing that Sumedh Saini may attempt to tender undue advantages to the ruling party during Lok Sabha elections. Congress had lodged a complaint with Election Commission of India in this regard.
According to media reports, after Sumedh Saini’s request to the government and the Election Commission, the EC had asked the state to submit a panel of senior most IPS officers for consideration. The EC had asked the government to submit the panel by 5 pm on Thursday.
The Chief Secretary of Punjab Rakesh Singh had then forwarded a panel of three senior most IPS officers to Election Commission of India for consideration for being appointed / posted as DGP Punjab during the leave period of Sumedh Saini.
The officers referred to for the post of DGP included G.D. Pandey, IPS (1981), Sanjeev Gupta, IPS (1982) and Suresh Arora, IPS (1982).
The ECI cleared the name of Suresh Arora for the post of DGP.