SAD complains to EC against Punjab DGP and co.

Fatehgarh Sahib, Jan 8 (UNI) Shiromani Akali Dal today complained to Chief Election Commissioner of India against Punjab DGP S S Virk and demanded his immediate removal from election-related duties to ensure free and fair assembly polls, alleging that he was the Chief Minister's man.

In a complaint to the CEC, SAD Secretary General Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa said that Mr S S Virk, IPS, posted as the Director General of Police in Punjab belonged to Maharashtra cadre and had been posted on the ''plum'' post by the present Congress government, ignoring the directions of the Home Ministry.

To make sure that Mr Virk continued as the DGP of Punjab, the state government sought more time from the Supreme Court to implement its directive on police reforms which stipulated that the DGP would have to be chosen from seniormost officers of the state cadre, it claimed.

The complaint charged the Chief Minister with making extension of Mr Virk's deputation his personal issue. When the name of Mr Virk had been cleared for appointment as the DG of the Central Police Organisation, Capt Singh had publicly stated that he will continue to be the DGP of the state till elections, it said.

Accompanied by media cutting, the complaint accused Mr Virk of adopting all illegal and unfair means to achieve his goals and ''please his bosses''. The media recently uncovered how he jad show a dreaded terrorist Sukhwinder Singh alias Sukhi dead in police records and gave him a new name and identity and all possible support to carry on his illegal activities, it said.

The media had also exposed that the arrest of certain persons and recoveries made from them in Jalandhar, were found to be factually incorrect and aimed at vitiating the atmosphere before the polls, the SAD alleged.

Apart from this, Mr Virk recently organized a ''police darbar'' for the Chief Minister at Patiala, wherein numerous concessions were announced for the police personnel in order to secure their vote in the coming elections, it alleged.

The complaint also named Mohd Mustafa IPS, IGP border zone as another controversial police officer whose wife Razia Sultana was a sitting Congress MLA from Malerkotla. The Congress government had got Mustafa posted as the IGP border zone at Amritsar by specially creating a new post with the sole motive to get him to work in the interest of Congress government in the coming elections, it added.

It also named many other IPS and IAS officers as being ''controversial'' and requested the CEC to ensure that they do not get any poll-related duties. However, some of them had already been removed from their present post last night.

UNI