Days after Punjab’s two director generals of police (DGPs) were named by another DGP for their alleged involvement in a drug trafficking case, Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Amarinder Singh on Wednesday ordered the top brass of the police to put an immediate end to fighting their personal and professional battles in the courts and the media.

Issuing a strict warning to senior police officers, the CM threatened to sack any officer found indulging in such acts of gross indiscipline, which were bringing a bad name to the Punjab Police. Amarinder said if needed, he would even approach the Union home minister to seek the dismissal of any officer found violating the discipline of the force.

In an application before the Punjab and Haryana High Court (HC), DGP (human resource development) Siddhartha Chattopadhyaya had on 6 April told the Punjab and Haryana High Court (HC) said that Special Investigation Team), formed by HC to probe drug trafficking allegations against another officer, had brought to light the role of DGP Arora and DGP (intelligence) Dinkar Gupta in the same drug trafficking case.

The CM, who also holds the home portfolio in the Punjab cabinet, had summoned a closed-door meeting this afternoon of all the top officials of the force.

An official spokesperson disclosed after the meeting that Amarinder expressed shock at the recent developments involving senior officers of Punjab Police and sent out a stern warning to the officers that he would not tolerate such indiscipline. Neither the media nor the courts were the proper forums to resolve differences, which needed to be resolved internally, he asserted.

Professional matters being taken to the court were unacceptable, he warned, adding that “this has to stop, right now”. “Any senior officer facing a professional issue should first approach the state DGP, followed by the home Secretary and the Chief Secretary, and if he is still not satisfied, he can come to me,” Amarinder said.

The CM made it clear that every officer in the force was required to accept the leadership of Director General of Police (DGP) Suresh Arora, whom he described as a highly professional officer.

Amarinder said he had never seen such things happening in the Punjab Police, which had brought the state out of many difficult phases, including terrorism, mass killings, targeted killings, religious fundamentalism, farmer unrest, etc.

Amarinder called for serious introspection by the officers for the sake of the force, the state and the country. The meeting was attended by all the DGPs (except Sumedh Singh Saini) and the 17 ADGPs of the Punjab Police.