Punjab suspends Vigilance chief, 2 others for inaction in driving licence scam
The Punjab government Friday suspended Vigilance Bureau chief director S P S Parmar and two other senior officers allegedly for failing to take action in an alleged driving licence scam. The other suspended officers include Assistant Inspector General, VB, SAS Nagar, Swarandeep Singh, and Senior Superintendent of Police, VB, Jalandhar, Harpreet Singh.
Additional Director General of Police (NRI) Praveen Kumar Sinha will hold the additional charge of Chief Director, Vigilance Bureau.
Parmar has been placed under suspension with immediate effect under Rule 3 (3) of All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969, for 'grave misconduct and dereliction of duty,' according to an order.
The move is seen as part of the Aam Aadmi Party government's broader push to curb corruption in Punjab. Parmar had been appointed chief director of Vigilance Bureau on March 26 after removing G Nageshwara Rao, who in turn had just about completed little over a month in office having replaced Varinder Kumar on February 17.
Kumar, who is due to retire on July 31, 2025, has been attached to the office of the Punjab DGP since then and has been awaiting a fresh appointment. Incidentally, Kumar had been appointed as the chief director of Vigilance Bureau in May 2022, shortly after the AAP came to power in the state.
The vigilance bureau getting three chief directors in just over two months is unprecedented. Parmar was serving as ADGP (Law and Order) and heading the SIT probing the attack on a serving Army officer by policemen in Patiala earlier this month. He joined the state police service and was elevated to IPS in 2012 with seniority dating to 1997.
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