In a major action in the drugs matter, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday dismissed the controversial cop — Punjab Additional Inspector General of Police (AIG) Raj Jit Singh, besides ordering a vigilance probe into his disproportionate assets.
 
The action came days after the Punjab Government received the three “sealed” reports of the Special Investigation Team on drug rackets in the state. Acting in the same, the State Government, on the Chief Minister’s directions, terminated the services of former Moga SSP Raj Jit Singh “after his involvement has surfaced” in the grave crime against humanity.
 
Exhibiting a zero-tolerance policy against those involved in the heinous crime of drug smuggling, Mann said that this action is in consonance with the directions of Punjab and Haryana High Court to act strictly against those named in the report pertaining to drug trade in the State.
 
Categorically stating that those who have ruined youth of Punjab, through drugs, won’t be spared, Mann said that he had asked the Vigilance Bureau to probe into the wealth amassed by Raj Jit by drug money so that it can also be confiscated.
 
Mann said that as Raj Jit’s involvement has been ascertained in this serious crime, his services have been terminated with immediate effect.
 
“Further details will be shared very soon…This is just the beginning and all those who are involved in this sin against the state and its youth will be brought to book,” he said.
 
Mann said that the drug trade, which had flourished during the previous Akali-BJP and Congress regimes, had ruined the future generations of the state. “The affluent leaders of both these parties had patronized this illegal trade in connivance with the bureaucrats and drug smugglers to mint money illegally,” he added.
 
The Chief Minister said that the probe report on this issue had been in wraps since long as none of the previous government was sincere to take action against those forces which had ruined the future of Punjab. “However, now when I have received the report in three packets from the High Court, severest of severe action will be ensured against the forces inimical to state and its youth,” he said while assuring the Punjabis that exemplary action will be taken against those people whose hand are drenched with blood of countless youth who fell prey to drug menace.
 
Notably, the reports — submitted in sealed covers by SIT chief Siddharth Chattopadhayaya in 2018 — were recently made public by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
 
The SIT, which investigated Raj Jit’s “connivance” with dismissed ORP inspector Inderjit Singh, said that in one of the reports that the latter had smuggled drugs from Pakistan with the aid of smugglers like the late Gurjeet Singh, Sahab Singh, Dalbir Singh and dismissed BSF jawan Suresh Kumar Tyagi. It also stated that Inderjit Singh’s connivance with several other officers would be the subject of a separate inquiry.
 
“Huge amounts were mobilized as loans or gifts by Raj Jit Singh during the relevant period. Although intimations have been given by Raj Jit Singh to his department in respect of these loans/gifts, the financial capacity of those individuals who had given such loans/gifts is required to be investigated,” the report read. “There is a sudden rise in the assets by Raj Jit Singh and his family members, for the period 2013 onwards, which gives definite scope for further inquiry.”
 
As per the SIT report, “the office of DGP, Punjab, was requested to furnish copies of the annual property returns filed by Raj Jit Singh. An analysis of these property returns has revealed that there has definitely been an upswing in the immovable assets owned by Raj Jit Singh, from the year 2013 onwards”.