Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ordered the removal of the personal security officer (PSO) of a high court judge, after a man snatched the PSO’s service pistol at the Golden Temple on September 24 and fatally shot himself. The PSO, an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI), was escorting the judge to the shrine at the time of the incident.
The court ruled that the judge’s security personnel should no longer be members of the Punjab Police, but instead be drawn from the UT administration or Haryana Police.
In its directive, the bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Anil Kshetarpal mandated that the security detail of the judge, both within and outside Chandigarh, be immediately transferred from Punjab Police to personnel from either the UT administration or Haryana Police.
The court remarked that several judicial orders passed by the judge over the past 12-24 months had exposed significant lapses by investigating agencies in Punjab.
The incident occurred on September 24, when the ASI, accompanying the judge at the Golden Temple, lost his service pistol to a man who then used it to take his own life.
