E-Paper
Moga court rejects pre-arrest bail plea of suspended woman SHO in graft case
On October 24, Moga police had registered a corruption case against the SHO and two constables — Gurpreet Singh and Rajpal Singh — for taking ₹5 lakh bribe to let off two accused in a drugs case and concealing 1kg of opium, which was recovered from the accused
A Moga court has dismissed anticipatory bail application of suspended Kot Ise Khan station house officer (SHO) Arshpreet Kaur in a corruption case related to a drug recovery.
On October 24, Moga police had registered a corruption case against the SHO and two constables — Gurpreet Singh and Rajpal Singh — for taking ₹5 lakh bribe to let off two accused in a drugs case and concealing 1kg of opium, which was recovered from the accused. Two persons, who were released by the cops after taking bribes, were also booked.
Moga additional sessions judge Sanjiv Kundi said: “Investigation is in progress and granting anticipatory bail to the accused will be uncalled for to interfere in the authority of the police to interrogate the accused.”
According to the first information report (FIR), the police got a tip-off and registered a case under the NDPS Act against one Amarjit Singh of Kot Ise Khan after recovering 2kg of opium on October 1. “Amarjit was caught along with his brother Manpreet Singh and son Gurpreet Singh. A total of 3kg opium was recovered from them. Grewal, the Kot Ise Khan SHO, colluded with head constables Gurpreet Singh and Rajpal to strike a deal of ₹8 lakh to release Manpreet and Gurpreet, both local residents, without any action. The police personnel took ₹5 lakh as bribe through a middleman and registered a case against Amarjit. Manpreet and Gurpreet were not named in the FIR and released,” the FIR dated October 23 reads.
During arguments, counsel for SHO Arshpreet said that the accused applicant has been falsely implicated in this case. “Arshpreet, while stationed at Mehna police station, was pressured by the Moga SP to submit a supplementary report for discharging certain accused in a case. She was being mentally tortured, and under this pressure, she complied. Before submitting the report, she filed a DDR on August 21, mentioning the verbal order from the SP (Investigation), Moga, which angered the SP and other senior officers,” he said.
Meanwhile, additional public prosecutor Sukhdev Singh said that Gurlal Singh, the middleman who facilitated the payment of ₹5 lakh in bribes to the accused, has given a statement detailing the specific roles played by each individual involved. Additionally, call records and tower location data of the police officers named in the FIR, as well as others involved in the offense, show that their locations coincided at the same place during the relevant time period.
