Dogra's tenure was to end on September 30. The Home Ministry, in fact, had rejected the State Government's request to grant another extension to Dogra. The North Block, after perusing the case, had returned the concerned file to the State Government, maintaining that Dogra had to go.

However, things started hotting up in Punjab once North Block's decision reached there. Recently, Chief Minister Barnala contacted Advani and conveyed to him the necessity of retaining Dogra as the police chief.

It was only after Advani agreed to Badal's plea that the third extension of six months was granted to Dogra. Sources in the Ministry held that as per the Central Government regulations,the DGP was entitled to only one extension, and that too could be granted only by the State Government. But this was not done in this particular case due to the state Chief Minister's intervention. ``This is not a normal practice,'' stressed the sources.

This, incidentally, was the second involvement of Home Ministry in recent times over matters pertaining to senior Punjab cops. The squabbling over who should be the next Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Chandigarh following the exit of SSP C S K Reddy snowballed into a major tug-of-war between the IPS lobby of Punjab. Not to be left behind, a number of Akali MLAs and MPs joined the warring factions.

The two major contenders for the post were Dipankar Gupta (SSP Ludhiana) and Parag Jain (SSP Ropar). The Chandigarh Administration, it is learnt, was keen on Jain.

Once again the Home Ministry's assistance was sought to sort out the ugly imbroglio. The Ministry, after some deliberation, opted for Dipankar Gupta as the new Chandigarh SSP and hasconveyed the decision to the Chandigarh administration and the Punjab Government as both Gupta and Jain are from Punjab cadre.