Punjab: Tarn Taran SSP suspended days before bypoll after Akali Dal complain

Merely three days before scheduled voting in Punjab’s Tarn Taran Assembly bypoll, the Election Commission on Saturday suspended district SSP (Senior Superintendent of Police) Ravjot Kaur Grewal. She had taken charge only in September.

Amritsar Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar has been given additional charge of Tarn Taran SSP with immediate effect, an official statement said. The EC did not specify the reason for Grewal’s suspension, but the action follows repeated complaints by SAD (Shiromani Akali Dal) president Sukhbir Singh Badal.

Badal had accused Grewal of misusing the police to lodge “false FIRs” against Akali leaders and workers to obstruct their campaigning for the 11 November bypoll. Welcoming the EC’s move, he said the Aam Aadmi Party’s “gambit to influence the bypoll by misusing the police force has been thwarted.”

In his earlier letter to the Punjab Chief Electoral Officer, Badal alleged that the local police were being deployed as AAP’s “de facto” election in-charge in Tarn Taran. He said AAP, fearing defeat, was “weaponising” the SSP’s office to intimidate Akali sarpanches and supporters.

The SAD claimed that politically motivated FIRs were being filed against its workers, calling it a deliberate design to “harass, silence and restrict the opposition’s campaign.” The party held multiple protests accusing the administration of bias.

Badal had also warned that Grewal was behaving like a “stooge” of the ruling party and would be held accountable if she continued acting as a “political agent” of AAP.

Earlier this month, the SAD submitted another complaint to the EC alleging that two plainclothes police officials chased Kanchanpreet Kaur, daughter of the party’s Tarn Taran candidate Sukhwinder Kaur Randhawa. The two officials were later intercepted, and the party termed the incident an attempt to “intimidate and threaten” the candidate’s family.

Such actions, the party said, amounted to a serious breach of the Model Code of Conduct, which mandates political neutrality of the police and administrative machinery. It sought Grewal’s transfer to ensure a level playing field.

Polling in Tarn Taran is scheduled for 11 November, with counting on 14 November. The seat fell vacant after the death of AAP MLA Kashmir Singh Sohal in June.