Negligent cops punished

Increments forfeited for varying periods of time

Chandigarh, January 24
Three police officials, found guilty of mishandling the Khushpreet kidnapping-for-ransom case, have been awarded major punishment for their negligence.

The three, including inspector Udeypal Singh, former SHO of the Sector 34 police station, sub-inspector Narinder Patial, the then in charge of the Burail police post, and the then investigating officer sub-inspector Balraj Singh, have been punished with forfeiture of increments.

Inspector General of Police PK Srivastava issued the orders of their punishments recently.

While inspector Udey Pal Singh has been awarded punishment of forfeiture of increments for four years, both sub-inspector Narinder Patial and sub-inspector Balraj Singh have been punished with forfeiture of increments for two years.

Five-year-old Khushpreet was kidnapped for ransom from Burail village in December 2010. A police trap to arrest the kidnappers failed and the body of the child was recovered from a pit in Mohali on January 5, 2011.

This is for the first time that senior police officials have acted against the negligent cops ever since an earlier departmental inquiry conducted by DSP Kulwant Singh Pannu indicted the three policemen for negligence while handling the case. The inquiry report was submitted on June 22 last year. Earlier, senior police officials had also issued them a reduction in rank notice asking them to reply why their current ranks should not be reduced.

All three officials were earlier suspended following a magisterial probe in January last year and were reinstated in May. On October 14 last year, the police complaint authority (PCA), too, criticised the police for not taking any action against the three officials despite them being indicted in both a magisterial and a departmental probe.

The three were found guilty of taking the ransom calls lightly in the beginning, which had resulted in a delayed police action. Both inquiry reports had indicted inspector Udey Pal Singh, inspector Narinder Singh Patial and sub-inspector Balraj Singh and had pointed to the culpabilities of the police officials for mishandling the kidnapping-for-ransom case.