Gaurav Yadav has been appointed as Special Principal Secretary to Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann. He will also continue to serve as the ADGP of Punjab Police. He already had this responsibility. Arvind Kejriwal and Gaurav Yadav have an old relationship. Together, both of them had passed the civil services examination in 1992. Gaurav Yadav had cleared the IPS exam, while Arvind Kejriwal was selected for the Indian Revenue Service. Gaurav Yadav has been working in Punjab Police for a long time. Gaurav Yadav led the operation in 2014 to nab the most wanted terrorist Jagtar Singh Tara.
This is the second time in the last few years that such an appointment has been given to a police officer in Punjab. Earlier in 2017, ADGP Harpreet Singh Sidhu also got a similar responsibility. He was made the Special Principal Secretary to the then CM Captain Amarinder Singh. He was the head of the Special Task Force on Action Against Drugs. Gaurav Yadav has old relation with Punjab. He is the son-in-law of former DGP PC Dogra of the state and has held several important positions in the state. He was the head of the Intelligence Wing in 2016 during the Akali-BJP coalition government.
Apart from this, he has served as SSP in Punjab for 10 years. Not only this, from 2002 to 2004, he has also worked as SSP in Chandigarh. The appointment of Gaurav Yadav as Special Principal Secretary is also being seen as the intervention of the Aam Aadmi Party’s high command in the Punjab government. It is believed that this decision has been taken from Delhi. Although no one has said anything about it so far. It is worth noting that AAP’s in-charge in Punjab is also Raghav Chadha, a close aide of Arvind Kejriwal, who has now been sent to Rajya Sabha from Punjab itself.