FRESNO, California — Fresno Police Chief Mindy Casto said on Tuesday, October 27, that City Council District 1 candidate Naindeep Singh Chann — who goes by Naindeep Singh — failed a field sobriety test before his arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence, and she denied that the arrest was politically motivated.

Source: Independent in the Field

Speaking at a news conference at Fresno police headquarters, Casto gave the department's first detailed public account of the weekend stop. She said an officer stopped Singh at 11:54 p.m. at the corner of Wishon and Olive avenues in the Tower District after seeing vehicle tags from 2020, which gave the officer probable cause for the stop.

Casto said the officer then confirmed that the car's registration was in fact valid through August 2026, indicating that the stickers had somehow been removed. Fresno police said Singh updated his vehicle registration on Monday, October 26, after his arrest — a detail the department illustrated with registration images it released at the briefing.

Source: Independent in the Field / Fresno PD

Chief denies any political motive

Casto said the arresting officer — whom she would not name, but described as a 10-year veteran and a drug recognition expert — was unaware of Singh's status as a candidate at the time of the arrest. She said it is not the department's intent to affect an election. ABC30 Action News also reported on Tuesday that Chief Casto was standing by the DUI arrest of the candidate.

Source: ABC30 Action News via ABC17 listing

The chief's account directly conflicts with what Singh told supporters a day earlier. At a Monday campaign event and news conference, Singh said he passed field sobriety and breathalyser tests, and he shared an independent toxicology report that he said showed no drugs in his system. Casto's statement that he failed a field sobriety test is the police department's allegation; the DUI allegation itself has not been proven in court.

Singh's side: 'full exoneration' expected

Singh, 48, is executive director of the Jakara Movement, a Sikh civil-rights organisation, and an elected member of the Central Unified School District board. According to his account reported by Fresnoland, he was not booked into jail but released with two citations — one for allegedly driving with unregistered tags and one for allegedly driving under the influence of drugs — after a blood draw at Community Regional Medical Center. He said he told the officer his tags had been ripped off and showed documents proving his registration was up to date, and he said he expects his 'full exoneration.'

Source: Fresnoland

As of Monday afternoon, the Fresno Police Department had not submitted a police report or charges to the Fresno County District Attorney's Office for review, DA spokesperson Taylor Long told Fresnoland. A filing decision would likely come only after the police department's own toxicology results are finished, which could take weeks; local civil-rights attorney Kevin Little told Fresnoland that blood-test results can take a while when samples are sent to a forensic laboratory.

For Fresno's large Punjabi and Sikh community in the Central Valley, the case is being watched closely: Singh is one of the community's most visible public figures, his supporters have questioned the arrest's timing one week before voting ends, and the police chief has now answered that question on the record by saying the stop began with an expired-looking tag and an officer who did not know who he was stopping. Both accounts — the chief's and the candidate's — remain on the record, and the toxicology results and any DA decision are the next verified facts to come.