India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Panjab’s Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) of Rupnagar range Harcharan Singh Bhullar on graft charges from his Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar (SAS Nagar) office on 16 Oct. CBI has recovered INR 7 crore (USD 795K), 1.5 kg gold, keys of luxury cars, 40 bottles of imported alcohol, and papers indicating ownership of various properties. A former hockey player turned middleman Kirshanu Sharda has also been arrested on the basis of a complaint by Akash Bhatta, a scrap dealer from Mandi Gobindgarh. Bhullar is the son of former Panjab Director General of Police Mehal Singh Bhullar and was directly inducted into Panjab Police without appearing for exams in 1993–94 as a Deputy Superintendent of Police. He was promoted to the Indian Police Service in 2016. Bhullar has now been suspended and sent to 14-day custody. The arrest has shattered the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) claim of corruption-free government in Panjab. On 18 Oct, the Panjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria said Bhullar’s arrest in a graft case served as a wake-up call as it showed ‘rampant corruption in higher echelons’. He wondered how corruption on such a scale went unnoticed despite vast administrative machinery in place. There are a couple of speculations why the CBI targeted Bhullar. One is with the state election just 15 months away, the Bharatiya Janata Party government in New Delhi which must have cleared the CBI action wanted to shatter AAP’s claim of being corruption free. Another is Bhullar’s Rupnagar police was recently involved in a face off with Chandigarh police over a Jaipur resident Navneet Chaturvedi nomination to the recent Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament). Chaturvedi’s papers were rejected and AAP’s Rajinder Gupta has been elected. Yet another reason is in May 2025 the Panjab government deployed the Bhullar’s Rupnagar police to provide security of the Nagal Dam despite the Union Home Secretary asking to withdraw the police. Bhullar’s arrest has sent a signal to corrupt officers in the Panjab government. Strangely, neither AAP nor any other political party except Indian National Congress’ Sukhpal Singh Khaira have commented on the development (earlier coverage).
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