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Faridkot court rejects bail pleas of SP, two other cops in ₹20-lakh bribery case
A Faridkot court on Wednesday dismissed the bail applications of three cops, including a superintendent of police (SP), in a corruption case
Faridkot
A local court on Wednesday dismissed the bail applications of three cops, including a superintendent of police (SP), in a corruption case.
Three Faridkot cops and two other persons were booked for allegedly taking a bribe of ₹20 lakh to renominate the “prime accused”, whom the cops had declared innocent earlier, in a 2019 murder case.
The accused were identified as Faridkot SP (investigation) Gagnesh Kumar, deputy superintendent of police (DSP, narcotics) Sushil Kumar, sub-inspector (SI) Khem Chand Prashar, who is posted as in-charge of RTI branch of Faridkot IG office, Jaswinder Singh of Faridkot city and Sant Malkeet Das of Bir Sikhan Wala village in Faridkot.
A case was registered under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sections 7, 7A, 8 and 13(1)(b) of the Prevention of Corruption Act at the Kotkapura Sadar police station.
The case has been registered on the complaint of Sant Gagan Dass of Kot Sukhia.
Gagnesh, Sushil, Prashar and Malkeet Das had moved bail applications in the court on June 26. The additional district and sessions judge Rajeev Kalra on Wednesday rejected the bail applications of the accused.
The FIR was lodged on the bases of probe of the special investigation team (SIT) led by the deputy inspector general of police (DIG), Ferozepur range, which had found loopholes in the 2019 murder case probe.
On November 7, 2019, two shooters shot dead Baba Dayal Das, 55, the deputy head of Harka Das Dera at Kot Sukhia village in Faridkot district.
Faridkot police named Baba Jarnail Das, head of another dera branch at Kapurewala village in Moga, as mastermind of the murder. Police had linked the murder to a succession war in the 80-year-old dera that has 12 branches in Punjab and Uttarakhand. The probe had found that Jarnail hatched the conspiracy to kill Dayal, but Punjab Police never arrested him and later gave him a clean chit.
In April, Gagan Das, who is officiating as in-charge of the dera since the death of Hari Das in May 2020, filed a complaint with the Punjab DGP alleging that cops “wrongly” declared “prime accused” Jarnail as innocent and accused Faridkot cops of taking bribe of ₹20 lakh to “re-nominate the prime accused” in the murder case. Following the complaint, a three-member SIT-led by DIG Ranjit Singh was constituted, which has found that officers took bribe. Now the case is under investigation of vigilance bureau.
