M A I N   N E W S

Punjab Police ‘keeping tabs’ on govt rivals
Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service

Khaki ‘poll cell’ n Punjab Police is accused of establishing an ‘election cell’ on the fifth floor of the police headquarters at Chandigarh n Another cell, manned by three senior Punjab Police officers, is functioning from the same floor for keeping telephones of political opponents under surveillance n Information is being collected on the likely candidates for the 117 Assembly constituencies n Efforts are afoot to identify political rivals who can be possibly won over

Not true: police Punjab DGP PS Gill was not available for comment, despite repeated attempts. A senior officer denied keeping tabs on politicians or their supporters. The officer said the police functioning was limited to identifying "trouble areas" to prevent any untoward incident during the elections.

Chandigarh, August 29
Vspb2010@gmail.com is the email ID that the Punjab Police is using to gather intelligence inputs on the political opponents of the ruling alliance, just as Punjab gears up for the SGPC and Assembly elections.

The techno-savvy Punjab Police has relegated to the trash can the system of compiling hard copies of reports gathered from its “agents” in different towns and areas and has logged on to the new programme. However, this move can land the government in trouble with the Election Commission.

Under the rules, the police cannot work in tandem with its political bosses for furthering its interests in the elections by providing them with intelligence inputs.

At the most, the intelligence wing of the police can maintain a vigil to pre-empt violence or booth-capturing during the elections.

Available information suggests that the Punjab Police has established an “election cell” on the fifth floor of the police headquarters in Sector 9.

It is believed that another cell, manned by three senior Punjab Police officers, has been functioning from the same floor for keeping telephones of political opponents and their supporters under surveillance.

Inquiries show information is being collected on the likely candidates for the 117 Assembly constituencies. Efforts are on to identify political rivals who can be possibly won over and to gauge their strengths and weakness and the means to win them over. Giving credence to the findings is a letter by Bholath MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira to Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi.

Alleging “gross misuse of intelligence and security wings of the Punjab Police for political purposes”, Khaira has asserted that the police has an election cell under the Additional Director-General of Police (security) to keep a watch over sensitive polling areas.

“But in order to keep a close watch on its political opponents, the government has in an unauthorised manner set up a parallel election cell…. Regular inputs are being obtained on the strength and weakness of all political parties and of the likely candidates in the 117 assembly constituencies”. Khaira has gone on to say that the postings of district police chiefs are decided on the basis of the inputs received from the districts through the intelligence wing.

“By maintaining graphs of its political opponents, the government is not only infringing on their privacy, but is also misusing the intelligence wing for political purposes,” Khaira has alleged.