5 years after suspension over police firing incidents, Punjab IPS officer Paramraj Umranangal reinstated
Chandigarh, July 11
The Punjab government on Thursday reinstated IPS officer Paramraj Singh Umranangal, who was suspended five years ago after being named an accused in cases of police firing on people protesting over alleged desecration of Guru Granth Sahib in 2015.
Umranangal has been reinstated with immediate effect, according to an order from the Home Affairs and Justice Department.
“In compliance with the orders dated February 2, 2024, of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in CWP No 3087 of 2023, Paramraj Singh Umranangal, IPS, is hereby reinstated in service with immediate effect, the order said.
“He shall report to the office of the Director General of Police for assignment of duties until regular posting orders are issued,” it said.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court had quashed Umranangal’s suspension in February this year.
However, Umranangal moved the High Court with a contempt of court petition following which the court on July 5 asserted that there were no grounds on which the state government could prevent Umaranangal from resuming work while fixing July 15 as the next date of hearing.
Umranangal was the Inspector General of Police when he was suspended in 2019. He was one of the accused in the 2015 police firing cases following sacrilege incidents.
The state government issued three suspension orders—two pertaining to police firing cases and one related to FIR in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances case—in February 2019, November 2020 and March 2021.
Umranangal had moved the HC in 2023 after the Central Administrative Tribunal rejected his claim for reinstatement.
The incidents related to the theft of a ‘bir’ (copy) of Guru Granth Sahib, putting up handwritten sacrilegious posters and torn pages of the holy book found scattered at Bargari, had taken place in Faridkot in 2015.
These incidents had led to protests in Faridkot.
In the police firing at the protesters in October 2015, two people were killed in Behbal Kalan while some were injured at Kotkapura in Faridkot.
