Chandigarh, June 27
In an unprecedented move, the Punjab Government today revamped the Intelligence Wing by shifting all its top four officers.

Overlooking the deployment of defence forces along the Indo-Pak border and the subsequent surcharged security environment, the State Government considered it prudent to make major changes at the top in the police department. It has also ordered shifting of four of the five Range Deputy Inspectors-General. Many an eyebrow has been raised not only in administrative circles but also in political circles over today’s order.

Issued late in the afternoon, the order is being viewed as the outcome of the ongoing tussle between the Vigilance Bureau and the Intelligence Wing over the handling of the recruitment scam as well as the Ravi Sidhu case.

The government, it appears, has through its administrative order conveyed its “displeasure” over the manner in which the Intelligence insisted on “transparency in handling both the Ravi Sidhu case and the recruitment scam” .

Intriguingly, the Vigilance Bureau has been left untouched amidst allegations that several “top performers” of the recruitment scam were being “protected” at the behest of certain influential persons in the top echelons of the State Administration.

The shifting of the Additional Director-General, Inspector-General, Deputy Inspector-General and the Superintendent of Police of the Intelligence in one go is unprecedented. Intriguingly, neither the Deputy Inspector-General (Counter-Intelligence) nor the S.P. (Intelligence) have been given a new posting.

The Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, immediately after assuming office had not only ordered the appointment of a new Director-General of Police, but also brought in Mr A.P. Bhatnagar as Additional Director-General of Police (Intelligence) by replacing Mr MPS Aulakh. Similarly, Mr Sumedh Singh Saini was brought in as Inspector-General (Intelligence).

But within a few days of his appointment as Additional Director-General of Police-cum-Chief Director, Vigilance Bureau, Mr S.V. Singh was shifted. In between, he was elevated and promoted as Director-General of Police.

Though nothing was said officially about the quick change in the leadership of the Vigilance Bureau, the “displeasure of the Punjab and Haryana High Court” in the handling of the Ravi Sidhu case was believed to be the provocation. And now only yesterday, the Vigilance Bureau apologised again, this time for assaulting a Warrant Officer of the High Court.