Jat quota stir: Haryana police propose reinstatement of 12 officers

A senior official said Friday that the government is considering a proposal to reinstate the 12 Haryana Police Service (HPS) officers and would take a decision soon. A meeting was chaired Friday by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar to discuss various issues concerning the reservation agitation, but no decision was taken on the proposal, the official said. It is expected that the government may take a call on the reinstatement when it decides the fate of the three Haryana Civil Service (HCS) officers, who were also suspended along with the DSPs in May 2016.

The HCS officers were posted as Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) when the violence took place. They were also suspended after the Prakash Singh Committee’s indictment. A senior police officer said that police officers cannot be kept under suspension for long without proving their guilt. “It should have been done long back. It’s just wastage of resources. These officers could be reinstated pending inquiry,” he said, adding that the proposal was sent to the state home department a few months ago.

The suspended DSPs sought to be reinstated are: Amit Dahiya, Amit Bhatia, Sunil Kumar, Satish Kumar, Vinod Kumar, Rajbir Singh, Sandeep Malik, Jagat Singh, Pawan Kumar, Bijender Singh, Surender Singh and Sukhbir Singh.

The suspended HCS officers are Dharmender Singh, then SDM Gohana, Pankaj Kumar, then SDM Jhajjar, and Jagdeep Singh, then SDM Hansi. Two DSPs, Amit Bhatia and Amit Dahiya, were suspended at the same time as Jadhav, who has been reinstated subject to the final outcome of the departmental proceedings pending against him.