Haryana Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta on Friday said that the matter of security lapses that led to gherao of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar outside the State Assembly by nine SAD MLAs of Punjab on March 10, will now be placed before the Privileges Committee of the State Legislature.
The Committee will examine the matter and ensure action against the erring officers, said Gupta while talking to the mediapersons here.
Dismissing the second report submitted by DGP Manoj Yadava in the matter as “an attempt to protect the erring security officers”, the Speaker said, “I am not satisfied with the second report of DGP regarding lapses in security of Chief Minister during the budget session of Haryana Legislative Assembly.”
I have seen the CCTV footage of the incident and it was evident that police officers on duty failed to act during the incident. Hence, the matter will now be placed before the Privileges Committee of the State Legislature, Gupta said.
Commenting on the second report submitted by DGP, the Speaker said that in the second report, those officers have been saved, against whom action was said to be taken in the first report. In the first report, immediate disciplinary action was taken against nine officers and employees responsible for the incident including IPS officer Pankaj Nain. Of these, show cause notices were also issued to eight, he said.
In the second report, the DGP gave a clean chit to IPS officer Pankaj Nain and wrote that he has performed his duty satisfactorily. Report stated a departmental inquiry has been made against only three employees. These employees include SI Gangajal, ASI Sube Singh and Head Constable Praveen Kumar, Gupta informed. Not only this, Haryana Police Department has tried to shift the blame on the Chandigarh Police for the incident. Report recommended Chandigarh DGP should take action against their officers, he added.
Earlier in March, a report into the incident was submitted to the Speaker by a three-member probe panel which was set up by Haryana Police chief Manoj Yadava. Panel had comprised senior police officers of Haryana and Chandigarh. Notably, SAD legislators had confronted Khattar outside the assembly hall on March 10 and had demanded that a resolution be passed in the Haryana Assembly against the Centre’s three new farm laws.
The legislators who were booked by UT Police included former Ministers Sharanjit Singh Dhillon and Bikram Singh Majithia. The SAD had termed the registration of the case against its MLAs an unfortunate and undemocratic step.