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2007 Moga sex scandal: SSP, SP among 4 cops convicted
CBI public prosecutor Anmol Narang said: “The court will now pronounce the quantum of sentence against the four cops on April 4.”
The special CBI court in Mohali on Saturday convicted four cops, including then Moga senior superintendent of police (SSP) and then Moga SP (Headquarters), in the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act 18 years after the scandal hit the headlines in 2007.
The court of Rakesh Gupta, special judge, CBI, Mohali, convicted Devinder Singh Garcha, the then Moga SSP, Paramdip Singh Sandhu, the then SP(H), Raman Kumar, the then Station House Officer (SHO) Moga city police station and Amarjit Singh, inspector, the then Moga City police station in charge, under Section 13(1)(d) and 13(2) of the PC Act.
Raman was also convicted under section 384 (extortion) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), while Amarjit was held guilty under section 384, 511 (attempt to extort) of the IPC. The CBI court acquitted Barjinder Singh alias Makhan, the son of former Punjab minister Tota Singh and Sukhraj Singh of all the charges.
The CBI had arrested Garcha and Sandhu, charging them with blackmailing influential persons to extort money.
CBI public prosecutor Anmol Narang said: “The court will now pronounce the quantum of sentence against the four cops on April 4.”
The CBI took over the probe after directions from the Punjab and Haryana high court on December 11, 2007. A day later, the central probe agency registered a fresh FIR in the case.
In the 2009 challan, CBI farmed charges against Barjinder Singh, SSP Garcha, SP Sandhu, Raman Kumar, and Amarjit Singh besides Manjit Kaur, Sukhraj Singh, Karamjit Singh Bath and Ranbir Singh, all residents of Moga district.
CBI investigation concluded that the accused being public servants abused their official positions and entered into a criminal conspiracy to obtain undue pecuniary gain for themselves by corrupt and illegal means and in pursuance thereof registered false FIR 82 dated April 18, 2007, under sections 366, 406, 420, 506, 344, 376, 34 of the IPC at Police station City-I, Moga against the innocent persons and later on implicated some other persons to extract illegal gratification from them for excluding their names based on affidavits sworn by so-called minor victim/complainant.
Manjit Kaur, advocates Bath and Ranbir turned approver in the case. In 2018, Manjit Kaur along with her husband Rajpreet Singh were murdered at Zira.
As per the challan, two women including a juvenile and Manjit Kaur, in connivance with the police officers and Barjinder extorted money from influential people by threatening to frame them in sexual abuse cases if they refused to pay up. Several prominent businessmen of Moga were blackmailed.
The case came to light when on June 7, 2007, Ranjit Singh of Bhagike village in Moga complained to the additional director general of police (law and order), alleging that the then SHO Amarjit Singh demanded a bribe of ₹50,000 from him over the phone and threatened that in case of non-payment, his name would be included in a rape case registered on the complaint of Manpreet Kaur.
The complainant along with others was later booked in another FIR dated June 4, 2007, under sections 323, 342, 506 and 149 of the IPC at Baghapurana police station on the complaint of Manpreet Kaur.
Ranjit Singh’s complaint was marked to DSP, Baghapurana, for an inquiry following which FIR number 198 dated October 24, 2007, was registered against the then inspector Amarjit Singh, Manjit Kaur and a female juvenile under sections of PC Act and 384, 211 and 120-B of the IPC.
