SHILLONG/ TURA: Meghalaya police chief SB Singh and a few of his officers have become the target of political parties ahead of the polls.
The BJP in its meeting with the Election Commission of India team on Thursday alleged that the DGP and a few police officers were campaigning for the chief minister and the party wanted his removal.
In the past, a similar campaign had led to the removal of then DGP prior to the 2013 polls and later it was found that it was only an allegation devoid of facts. The allegation was that the then DGP was trying to float a political party.
The BJP now based the argument for the removal of DGP on a complaint of NPP, which, however, was withdrawn by the party after an individual leader raised the matter.
After the complaint of the NPP, the state election department officials had downplayed it stating they were not aware of it.
Singh, who is due for retirement on April 30, has already turned down the six-month extension period.
Questions are galore about the timing of the complaint by the BJP and highly placed police sources indicated that the core of the issue lies in the internal feud in the police headquarters.
There are three senior police officers vying for the position after the retirement of Singh. The senior officers are Additional DGP in charge of CID B L Buam, Additional DGP in charge of Prisons RP Agarwal and DGP for Home Guards Raghavendra Awasthi.
“It appears someone wants to replace the DGP during the election process and appoint another officer who will get the opportunity to run the state police force post the March 3 election results,” said a police officer on condition of anonymity.
Mukul blamed
Ironically at a time when militancy in Garo Hills is on the downslide thanks to the intervention of the police, the BJP alleged in the letter addressed to the Election Commission that since the chief minister belongs to Garo Hills and is contesting from the region, “the militancy has raised its head again ahead of Assembly elections”.
The BJP went on to add that revival of militancy before the Assembly elections “is a ruse by the CM to rig elections in his constituency”.
The BJP also asked the EC to have special arrangement to ensure free and fair elections in the constituency of the CM.
In the last three years, the backbone of insurgency had been broken by the state police force under the leadership of three police chiefs — Peter James Pyngrope Hanaman, Rajiv Mehta and Singh.
From several hundred armed cadres three years ago, the banned GNLA was left with just a dozen militants by the beginning of 2018 with its chief Sohan D Shira fleeing from one location to another because of successive counter-insurgency operations by state police commandos. There was a mass surrender of GNLA area commanders and armed cadres in 2016 and 2017.
