Punjab Police get their new Chief in DGP Siddharth Chattopadhyay

New Delhi, December 20

The Punjab Police welcomed their new Chief as senior IPS officer, Siddharth Chattopadhyaya took over the additional charge as the new Director General of Police Punjab.

Chattopadhyay is a 1986-batch Indian Police Service officer of Punjab cadre.

He is serving as Special DGP (Punjab State Power Corporation Limited) and also has additional charge of Chief Director of Punjab Vigilance Bureau.

After joining office, the newly appointed director general of police (DGP) held a meeting with the top brass of the department.

The new top cop expressed that law and order in Punjab is his main agenda in  in view of the Punjab assembly elections due early next year. He mentioned that preparing Punjab Police stringer against the fight against drug and human trafficking and improving road safety in the state is on his roadmap to leading the force as their Chief.

DGP Chattopadhyay is the recipient of the President’s Police Medal for Gallantry, the new DGP had served in various critical and sensitive capacities in the state police during militancy and on deputation with the Border Security Force.

Amidst the row of being labelled as "Sidhu's choice", the police officers from the Chattopadhyay's batch however expressed that Chattopadhyay is a fine officer who investigated some of the most high profile cases in Punjab. He has led key investigations with finery and achieved success in cracking the challenging cases.

It was officer Chattopadhyaya who was a supervisory officer to investigate the property details of Akali Dal leader and former Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal and his family members in 2003 corruption and disproportionate assets case registered by then CM Captain Amarinder Singh. 

Badals were acquitted by a Mohali court in 2010 due to lack of evidence, when the SAD-led government was in power.

In 2014, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had quashed strictures passed against Chattopadhyaya by the Mohali court which acquitted the Badals and others while noting that witnesses turning hostile in a case is no ground for perjury proceedings against officers.

In another key case related to drugs, DGP Chattopadhyaya had headed a three-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed in December 2017 on the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to look into the allegations of police officer SSP Raj Jit Singh’s (then Moga SSP) alleged complicity with Inspector Inderjit Singh.

Inspector Singh was earlier arrested in a drug case by the anti-drug Punjab STF headed by AGG Harpreet Singh Sidhu. SSP Raj Jit Singh had sought immediate transfer from STF.

Chattopadhyay's investigation report is believed to be a in a sealed cover in the court.

The Punjab Government in September had appointed Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota as the new DGP of Punjab as an additional charge. However, Sahota's appointment had led to differences among the ministers in the present regime of Punjab. 

The camp led by Punjab Congress chief Navjot Sidhu was reportedly against Sahota's appointment as DGP. Following Sidhu’s pressure, the government, led by Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, sent the panel of 10 officers to the UPSC on September 30, ensuring Chattopadhyaya remained on that list.

A candidate for the position should have six months remaining on their service period, as per the norm. Chattopadhyaya will retire on March 31, 2022.

An alleged "information leak" on a drug case from the police headquarters was also being stated as one of the reasons behind Sahota's removal.

Sahota was removed from the post of DGP on December 18 in a surprise move by CM Charanjit Singh Channi and home minister Sukhjinder Randhawa.

It is also to be noted that before Sahota, the Punjab Government led by Amrinder Singh had appointed Dinkar Gupta as the DGP who was removed from his post after Charanjit Singh Channi took over as the new CM of Punjab.