Just three days ahead of voting in Punjab's Tarn Taran assembly bypoll, the Election Commission on Saturday suspended the district's Senior Superintendent of Police Ravjot Kaur Grewal.
She was posted as Tarn Taran SSP in September. Meanwhile, IPS officer Surendra Lamba has been posted as the new SSP of Tarn Taran following the approval of the Election Commission. Earlier in the day, Amritsar Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar was assigned the additional charge of Tarn Taran SSP with immediate effect.
Though no reason has been mentioned for the suspension of Grewal, the action against the SSP came after Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal lodged a complaint with the Punjab Chief Electoral Officer against the officer.
The Aam Aadmi Party questioned the suspension of the SSP, claiming that the action was taken without any "concrete complaint." AAP leader Baltej Pannu alleged that the EC was acting at the behest of the BJP. He claimed the opposition parties were "unnerved" by the "immense" support of the people for the AAP in the bypoll. SAD president Badal had accused the SSP of using the police to lodge false FIRs against his party's leaders and cadre to stop them from campaigning for the November 11 bypoll.
He hailed the EC's move on Saturday, saying the AAP's "gambit to influence the bypoll by misusing" the police force has been thwarted. In his letter to the Punjab CEO last month, Badal had alleged that the local police were being "misused" for the political gains of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party.
He had alleged that as AAP has realised that it cannot win the bye-election "fairly", it has made the SSP its "de facto" in-charge in Tarn Taran. "The SSP is registering false cases against Akali sarpanches and workers in order to intimidate them and prevent them from participating in poll activities", Badal had alleged. The SAD had claimed that politically motivated FIRs were registered against its leaders and workers.
