By IANS,
Chandigarh : Chandigarh Police have suspended five officials, including two station house officers (SHOs) manning important areas, for alleged links with drug peddlers and also for dereliction of duty.
Inspectors Rajesh Shukla and Davinder Kumar Sharma were Wednesday night suspended by senior police officials on charges of “failing to control the drug menace and for the discrepancies in prime duties regarding crime control, law and order” and “covering up the lapse and involvement of a police official with drug peddlers” respectively.
Both officers were holding key positions in the city. Shukla was SHO at the Sector 39 police station while Sharma was SHO at the Sector 36 police station.
One head constable and two constables were also placed under suspension for disobeying senior police officials.
Police sources maintained that all three are close associates of Shukla. They were allegedly working in connivance with drug peddlers of their areas and were getting hefty bribes from them.
SHO Sharma has been suspended for shielding the involvement of head constable Baljit Singh with drug peddlers. Singh was suspended in August.
Senior police officials also ordered regular departmental inquiry against six other policemen, including a sub-inspector, after their names figured in a list prepared by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) list of policemen who had connived with drug peddlers in a drugs racket in the union territory (UT).
All of them were suspended by Inspector General of Police S.K. Jain in August this year after their names figured in this region’s drugs nexus.
“We will not tolerate any law-breaking behaviour on the part of our police officials. If they are found involved in any such criminal acts then strict disciplinary action will be taken against them,” S.S. Srivastava, senior superintendent of police, told IANS.
“We have initiated departmental inquiries against all the suspect officials. Very soon, we will manage to nail all the culprits in the business of drug trafficking going on in the region,” pointed out Srivastava.
All the suspended cops have been transferred to Police Lines in Sector 26.
Police have also initiated a separate inquiry against its men suspended in August this year by constituting a special team headed by Deputy Superintendent of Police, B.S. Chadha.