Captain, Saini cross swords again

Wednesday, 24/10/2012

http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=53364&boxid=65859&uid=&dat=2012-10-24

Chandigarh : It has happened a second time in the last eight months. Punjab Congress President Capt Amarinder Singh and DGP Sumedh Singh Saini again crossed swords on Tuesday over the much-hyped, and perhaps the most politicised kidnapping-turned-elopement of Shruti, a minor girl, with her lover-turned-kidnapper Nishan Singh Brar of Faridkot.

A day after the DGP had, without naming any leader or political outfit, expressed deep concern over what he had called “totally unethical and insensitive” politicisation of the matter by “distorting the facts” for personal considerations, and, in turn, hampering the investigations, Punjab Congress chief asked Saini to “respect his uniform and stop behaving like an Akali politician”. Strongly refuting Amarinder’s allegations, Saini said, “Abstain from unethical behaviour or making issues where none exists”.

Even as Amarinder asked Saini to “mind your own business, don’t mess up with politics”, the DGP reacted sharply, “It is definitely my business if facts are deliberately distorted, and the issue of a minor girl is used to further personal interests, resulting in hindrance to the investigations”. Training guns on the Congress leader, Saini said, “I would strongly advise Amarinder to leave policing and investigation to the police and devote time to his own business, if he can. He should abstain from unethical behaviour, or making issues where none exists”.

Claiming that the investigations in the case had been carried out in “most professional and sensitive manner”, the DGP told former CM that the accused had been arrested from places as far as UP and Goa, and the girl had been safely recovered. “Strict action had been taken against the accused, and the investigations will be taken to its logical conclusion,” he asserted.

Regarding the action taken in the matter, Saini recalled that Faridkot DIG and SSP were transferred because of the “insensitivity” in dealing with the matter, which, he said, was not a “small administrative step”. “Perhaps Capt Singh should look at the blatant matter in which he repeatedly maligned the name of a minor girl and attempted to make the issue a virtual public spectacle,” he added.

Reacting to Saini’s accusation, Amarinder said, “Instead of admitting to police failure, the DGP, like a typical Akali, was trying to blame the Congress for no reason”. He asked Saini to clarify if it was not abduction when a girl was forcibly dragged out at gunpoint from her home after her helpless parents were beaten up by a group of goons.

The former CM advised the DGP that before levelling allegations against the Congress, he should better visit the area from where the girl was abducted, and find out how terrorised was the family and other neighbours. “For the first time in the history of Punjab, a girl has been abducted at gunpoint under your Director Generalship of the police”, he told Saini, while asking him whether he wanted the Congress to keep quiet?

“Leave politics to politicians and get serious about your job lest Punjab turns into a lawless anarchy”, Amarinder told Saini, saying sooner he learnt his lessons, the better it would be for him and Punjab.