E-Paper
Patiala police’s failure in arresting cops facing FIRs raises questions
SSP claims that accused police personnel have been suspended and departmental inquiry is on
Even after registration of first information reports (FIRs) against two crime investigation agency (CIA) staff inspectors last week, no arrests have been made so far.
The accused police personnel still being at large has put the working of Patiala police under scanner.
The district police had booked Rajpura CIA inspector Gurjeet Singh and assistant sub-inspectors (ASIs) Gurdeep Singh and Sahib Singh under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and under Prevention of Corruption Act, for letting an accused go scot free in a drug recovery case on November 25.
On November 29, CIA Samana staff inspector Vijay Kumar and his raiding team were booked on charges of kidnapping a Bathinda resident and extorting ₹30 lakh from him.
Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Mandeep Singh Sidhu said that in the Rajpura case, police parties, supervised by superintendent of police (SP) Harmeet Singh Hundal, are conducting raids to arrest the accused police personnel.
“We have already arrested ASI Gurdeep Singh, and the other two accused will also be arrested soon. We are also conducting minute investigation into the matter,” the SSP said.
“And in the CIA inspector case,” the SSP added, “I have already written to inspector general of police (IG) Jatinder Singh Aulakh to hand over the case to the vigilance bureau.”
“The FIR was registered at the Civil Lines police station, but since an alleged bribe amount of ₹30 lakh was demanded by the accused inspector, the vigilance bureau should carry out a detailed probe into the matter,” the SSP said.
He said that the accused police personnel have already been suspended and departmental inquiry has been initiated against them.
‘Lawless law enforcers’
The series of FIRs against police personnel in the past 15 days raise questions over the working of the Patiala police, say residents.
In the first case, the Rajpura CIA inspector and two ASIs were booked after Rajpura MLA Hardial Singh Kamboj raised the issue at a grievance committee meeting with state cabinet minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot last month.
Following this, SP (investigation) Harmeet Singh Hundal was ordered to conduct an investigation. The FIR registered on November 25, states that nearly 3,300 Tramadol salt tablets were bought by hospital official AP Jain, but it was later found that Mukesh Kumar, of Guru Nanak Medical Store, had actually bought it.
“However, SHO Gurjit and the ASIs did not probe the matter and let Mukesh go scot-free. It came to fore that Gurjit did not even register an FIR,” the FIR reads.
In the Samana case, CIA staff inspector Vijay Kumar and a Johny Mittal alias Tande Bhan were booked for kidnapping and extortion of ₹30 lakh from a Bathinda resident on November 29. Mittal is said to be a close associate of Bhucho constituency Congress MLA Pritam Singh Kotbhai.
The FIR states that complainant Rajwinder Pal and his three friends were taken into an illegal custody by the Kumar on October 18. They were physically tortured before being released on October 19, the complaint states.
The victims were threatened of being killed in a fake encounter or being implicated in false NDPS cases.
“On October 19, Kumar allegedly demanded a bribe of ₹50 lakh to ensure safe release of the victims. A deal was stuck at ₹30 lakh after Mittal mediated,” the FIR reads.
The victims handed over ₹11 lakh to Kumar at CIA Samana on October 19, while remaining amount was paid to Mittal at his Bathinda residence in two instalments — ₹14 lakh and ₹5 lakh — on October 20 and 21, respectively.
In yet another case on October 29, ASI Renu Bala and her husband ASI Surinder Singh were arrested by the tarn Taran police under the NDPS Act after 50gm heroin was recovered from them.
Renu, who was posted at the Urban Estate police post in Patiala, had developed links with drug peddler Nishan Singh. She used to procure the drug from him and smuggle it from New Delhi to Tarn Taran.
