Haryana DGP O P Singh pays surprise visit to police station in Panchkula

Chandigarh, Oct 14 (PTI) Haryana Director General of Police O P Singh on Tuesday turned up unannounced at a police station in Panchkula.

O P Singh, a 1992-batch IPS officer, has been assigned the "additional charge of DGP Haryana during the leave period of Shatrujeet Kapur." During his visit to the Sector 7 Police Station, O P Singh asked the personnel to clean up the station and streamline their work, sources said.

He asked them to submit a 400-word note by Wednesday morning on what they would write in the general register had they been state police chief on a surprise visit to a police station.

Earlier in the day, after assuming charge of office at police headquarters in Panchkula, O P Singh addressed the officers and employees of the police department across the state via wireless.

"The contribution of the jawans is crucial. They work day and night, risking their lives to protect the people," he said.

The public and the government have high expectations of the police, he said. "We will crack down on fraudsters and criminals," he said.

The officer called the police department his family, and the state of Haryana his workplace.

Before his address, O P Singh held a meeting with senior officers at the police headquarters and discussed the functioning of the department, the law and order situation, and measures to improve the quality of policing in the state.

The Haryana government on Tuesday sent state DGP Shatrujeet Kapur on leave, amid mounting attacks from the Opposition over IPS officer Y Puran Kumar's alleged suicide.

The development came days after the government transferred Narendra Bijarniya, former Rohtak superintendent of police.

Shatrujeet Kapur and Narendra Bijarniya, who was recently transferred as Rohtak SP, are among eight officers named in a note purportedly left behind by IPS officer Y Puran Kumar, accusing them of "blatant caste-based discrimination, targeted mental harassment, public humiliation and atrocities." "Yes, the DGP has been sent on leave by the government," said Rajiv Jaitly, media adviser to the Haryana chief minister.

O P Singh is currently posted as Director General of Haryana State Narcotics Control Bureau; Managing Director of Haryana Police Housing Corporation, Panchkula; and Director, Forensic Science Laboratory, Madhuban.

On October 7, 52-year-old Y Puran Kumar, a 2001-batch IPS officer, allegedly shot himself dead.

Kumar's wife, senior IAS officer Amneet P Kumar, has demanded that Kapur and Bijarniya be named in the FIR registered by Chandigarh police for allegedly abetting her husband's suicide.

The Chandigarh Police has constituted a six-member special investigation team to investigate the case. PTI SUN VN VN