PM's security breach in Punjab: SC to announce name of judge to head probe panel
Darpan News Desk IANS, 11 Jan, 2022 11:38 AM
New Delhi, Jan 11 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Wednesday will announce the name of the retired top court judge who will head the committee to investigate Prime Minister Narendra Modi's security breach in Punjab last week.
On Monday, after a detailed hearing in the matter, a bench, headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, said the court will set up a committee headed by a retired top court judge to probe the PM's security breach and asked both the Centre and Punjab government to not move ahead with their respective inquiries into the matter.
The bench said it will pass a detailed order in the matter. During the hearing, it orally proposed that other members of the committee would be Director General of Police, Chandigarh, Inspector General, National Investigation Agency (NIA), Registrar General of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, and Additional DGP, Security, Punjab.
The bench said: "We are taking the PM's security breach very seriously." It added that it will ask the committee to submit its report to it within a short span.
Advocate General D.S. Patwalia, representing the Punjab government, complained against show-cause notices to its Chief Secretary and the DGP. He urged the top court to form an independent committee to probe the matter. "Hang me if I am guilty... but don't condemn me unheard," submitted Patwalia.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, defended the show-cause notices issued by the Central government. However, the top court expressed its displeasure at Centre's stand, questioning what is the point of asking the court to examine the matter if the Centre wanted to go ahead on its own.
Senior advocate Maninder Singh, representing the Delhi-based petitioner Lawyer's Voice, emphasised on the importance of protection to the PM of the country and cited previous top court ruling that looked at the SPG Act.
Madhya Pradesh BJP in-charge, P. Murlidhar Rao told IANS that a centralised monitoring system will be set up at the state level to keep real-time monitoring of anti-party comments or statements of state leaders and office bearers at different levels of the organisation.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Kulgam Kisan Morcha President and his wife were shot dead by suspected terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district on Monday, sources said.
Director General of Police, Punjab, Dinkar Gupta said that following inputs regarding drone activity in the area, a massive combing operation was launched.
State NCP President and Water Resources Minister Jayant Patil, Mumbai party President and Minister Nawab Malik and others visited the martyrs' memorial at the August Kranti Maidan in south Mumbai and paid homage to those who sacrificed their lives for the country's Independence.
He was the prime mover behind the letter written to interim party chief Sonia Gandhi calling for wide-ranging reforms and is also seen one of the leaders who has serious differences with the working of Rahul Gandhi.
Former Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Punjab Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday urged the Centre and the state governments "to fully acknowledge and honour the contribution of each and every player, in addition to the medal winners, who represented the country at the Tokyo Olympics".
