Graft-tainted inspector is police watchdog chief in Chandigarh
In the latest reshuffle of cops, inspector Baljeet Singh, former SHO of Mauli Jagran station, who is accused of taking a bribe of ₹45,000, has been appointed as the in-charge of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA).
PCA is an independent body that deals with complaints from citizens against police personnel on matters like custodial death, custodial rape, extortion or any serious abuse of power.
As per the transfer orders, Baljeet will replace Dilbagh Singh Dhaliwal, who will take over as in-charge of law and order and monitoring cell.
In January 2019, CBI’s anti-corruption bureau had arrested Baljeet, the then SHO of Mauli Jagran station, for accepting a bribe of ₹45,000 in exchange for not framing a man in a drugs case.
Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Nilambari Jagadale said, “Baljeet was reinstated by an internal committee, following which a decision was taken to appoint him as PCA in-charge. We need to give him some work, as he can’t be drawing salary for no reason.”
THE CASE
CBI had booked Baljeet and constable Surinder Rathi under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code on January 28, 2019.
As per the complaint, some men were detained at the Mauli Jagran station following alleged recovery of charas. Baljeet had demanded a bribe of ₹1.2 lakh to let them off. Eventually, the deal was struck at ₹55,000.
CBI had later nabbed Rathi red-handed when he was accepting ₹45,000 of the decided amount.
Baljeet had also been trapped earlier by the CBI with a constable for bribery in 2005 when he was posted as a sub-inspector at the Mauli Jagran police post. Suspended by the Chandigarh Police during the trial, he was later acquitted.
OTHER TRANSFERS
Inspector Malkiat Singh was transferred to traffic police from police lines, while inspector Maninder Singh was given charge of traffic police. He was moved from law and order branch. Parvesh Sharma, posted at police control room (PCR), was transferred as SHO women cell, and inspector Ashwani Kumar was transferred to PCR.
