CAT allows appeal of two senior cops against Punjab DGP's appointment

The Central Administrative Tribunal on Friday allowed the appeal of two senior police officers against the appointment of Punjab Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta. A two-member bench of CAT chairman L Narsimha Reddy and M Jamshed accepted Mohammad Mustafa and Siddhharth Chattopadhyaya's plea, counsel Rajiv Atma Ram said.

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In the plea filed last year, the two police officers said they were senior to Gupta and had outstanding service records. "The empanelment was done by a committee headed by then DGP Suresh Arora who was biased against Chattopadhyaya," Atma Ram said in the plea. The police officers also opposed the contention of the empanelment committee, which sent a report to the UPSC saying they lacked experience in core policing areas, Ram said.

While Mustafa is a 1985-batch officer and Chattopadhyaya a 1986-batch officer, Gupta is a 1987-batch officer. Their counsel said both of them were ignored by the Union Public Service Commission panel for appointment as the state's DGP. Gupta was appointed DGP in 2019, succeeding Arora.

He superseded five senior officers, including Mustafa and Chattopadhyaya. In his previous stint, Gupta was posted as the Director General of Police, Intelligence, Punjab. He had an eight-year-stint on central deputation with the Home Ministry, from June 2004 to July 2012, where he held many sensitive assignments.

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