A day after gangster Sukha Kahlon was gunned down in front of Punjab policemen, the Punjab Government on Thursday ordered the transfer of Kapurthala Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Dhanpreet Kaur and Phagwara SP Gursewak Singh “with immediate effect”. Their transfer orders were issued by Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister Sukhbir Badal while taking serious view of the security lapses leading to the killing of Sukha Kahlwan while in police custody.
In their place, IPS officer Ashish Chaudhary and Rajeshwar Singh Sidhu have been been posted as the new Kapurthala SSP and Phagwara SP respectively. The orders were issued after the Inspector General of Police, Zone-I, Patiala, Paramjit Singh Gill examined the lapses on the part of police party escorting Sukha Kahlwan, as it had failed to resist the assailants. Two Assistant Sub-Inspectors (ASIs), who were in-charge of the police escort party, have been dismissed from service, while four police officials who were members of the police party have been suspended, and departmental enquiry for major penalty of dismissal has been instituted against them.
“Inspector General of Police, Zone-II, Jalandhar, is personally supervising the investigation of the case. He is being assisted by the Jalandhar Commissioner of Police,” said the Punjab Police spokesperson. He said that the main assailants have been identified and police parties have been dispatched to nab them. “Initial investigation shows it to be a case of an attack on Sukha Kahlwan by members of a rival gang. The main assailants have old police record and had absconded while out on bail or parole. Further investigations are in progress,” added the spokesperson. Notorious criminal Sukhbir Singh Kahlwan, alias Sukha Kahlon, was killed by around 15 unidentified assailants in Phagwara on Wednesday when six cops were taking him back to the Nabha jail in a jeep after a court hearing in Jalandhar on National Highway-I. Sukha was facing around 40 cases across India, including two murder cases, seven for attempted murder and eight for robbery in Punjab and Haryana.