Police probing how suspended MCD staff acquired farmhouse
A day after the arrest of a suspended MCD staff for providing safe haven to gangsters from neighbouring Sonepat district in Haryana, investigators from the Crime Branch of Delhi Police are in the process of unravelling another mystery. HT reports.
A day after the arrest of a suspended MCD staff for providing safe haven to gangsters from neighbouring Sonepat district in Haryana, investigators from the Crime Branch of Delhi Police are in the process of unravelling another mystery.
Apart from ascertaining the origin of the underground cache of sophisticated weapons in his possession, the police are also attempting to ascertain how 45-year-old Jaswant Singh, a former junior engineer in the MCD before he was suspended in 2002, was able to procure funds for his palatial farmhouse in south Delhi's Vasant Kunj.
"Since he was harbouring criminals and helping them stash a cache of arms at his property, we will certainly look into his financial background to ascertain the source of his funding," said Ashok Chand, deputy commissioner of police (crime).
On Wednesday, a gang of four Sonepat-based criminals, identified as Dharmender, 31, Devender, 33, Vikram, 26, and Mandeep, 25, and their conduit Jaswant Singh were arrested by the Crime Branch.
Police said the gang, in a bid to dominate the local cable television business in Sonepat, had been found to have been involved in a series of criminal cases, ranging from murder to robbery across three states.
Singh, who has a case each of extortion and attempt to murder registered against him, used to provide them a safe haven at his farmhouse in south Delhi, in addition to helping the gang store a cache of sophisticated arms that they would even loan to local goons perpetrating petty crimes in and around the national capital region (NCR). The farmhouse, located on Church Road in Vasant Kunj, is registered in the name of Singh's father.
"A self-loading rifle (SLR) of 7.62 bore with eight live cartridges, a .9 MM carbine with 28 live cartridges, a .12 bore double barrel shotgun with five live cartridges, two revolvers of .38 bore with 10 live cartridges, a pistol of 7.65 bore with nine live cartridges, and a country-made gun with 13 live cartridges were recovered from them," said the officer.
Meanwhile, the MCD has distanced itself from Singh. "The arrested engineer does not belong to the MCD," said Rajesh Mishra, secretary, MCD Engineer Forum.