Punjab cop held for taking ₹9.5 lakh bribe to protect drug peddler
AMRITSAR: The Punjab Police’s anti-drug special task force (STF) has arrested an additional station house officer (SHO) for allegedly taking ₹9
AMRITSAR: The Punjab Police’s anti-drug special task force (STF) has arrested an additional station house officer (SHO) for allegedly taking ₹9.5 bribe from a drug smuggler, also accused in the Ludhiana bomb blast case.
Sub-inspector (SI) Narinder Singh, who was posted at the Lopoke police station, was arrested on the basis of the confessional statement of one Guravtar Singh, who was arrested a few days ago in a follow-up investigation of the December 23, 2021, Ludhiana court complex blast case in which a former cop, Gagandeep Singh, was killed while allegedly planting an improvised explosive device.
STF’s deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Vawinder Mahajan said: “A smuggling case was registered at the STF police station in Mohali in May. Following the investigation, four persons, including one Dilbagh Singh, alias Baggo, were arrested at the initial stage and heroin was recovered from them. During interrogation told the STF that he had been working along with one Surmukh Singh, alias Sammu, who was arrested around a month ago in a case of seizure of an improvised explosive device (IED). On questioning, Baggo revealed that he had retrieved an IED from the border and handed it over to Gagandeep Singh in Ludhiana at the behest of Sammu.
Following Baggo’s statement, Sammu was also brought on production warrant and he confessed that the Ludhiana blast’s IED was smuggled from Pakistan at the behest of Harpreet Singh, alias Happy, who is living in Malaysia, the DSP said
“On Sunday, the STF arrested Avtar and Guravtar and recovered one kg heroin from their possession. Guravar told us that he was being protected by the SI. He also said that he had given ₹9.5 lakh to the cop for helping him. On Friday morning, our team conducted a raid and arrested the SI. We have also recovered the bribe money. He was produced in a local court, which sent him to three-day remand,” the DSP added.