Amritsar, August 7 — The Punjab Government has transferred Amritsar Commissioner of Police Gurpreet Singh Bhullar on Friday, directing him to report directly to the Director General of Police in Chandigarh. Deputy Inspector General of Police (Border Range) Harmanbir Singh Gill has been given the additional charge of Commissioner of Police for Amritsar with immediate effect.
The administrative reshuffle follows a public controversy generated by selectively edited video clips of an August 4 press conference addressed by Bhullar. Circumulating posts had alleged a connection between arrested members of a foreign-backed terror module and demonstrators protesting at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.
Clarifying the official record, a department spokesperson asserted that there was no operational or organizational link between the demonstrators and the terror suspects. Law enforcement authorities maintained that Bhullar had explicitly reported that suspects merely conducted reconnaissance near the venue with plans to target the crowd using petrol bombs, rather than participating in the demonstration itself.
“The audio and factual content of the press conference had not been morphed, but selective trimming and accompanying captions had distorted its context,” a police spokesperson stated while outlining legal remedies.
Department officials affirmed that formal proceedings under the Information Technology Act are currently being initiated against entities responsible for circulating the altered video footage and misleading captions.
