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Punjab government gives nod to prosecute DIG Inderbir in drugs, graft cases
Punjab grants prosecution sanction against IPS officer Inderbir Singh for alleged bribery in drug and corruption cases from 2022, complicating his legal troubles.
The Punjab home department has granted prosecution sanction against 2007-batch IPS officer and deputy inspector general Inderbir Singh in connection with two FIRs lodged in 2022 drug and corruption cases, said people in know of the matter.
Inderbir is currently posted at the Punjab Armed Police (PAP) headquarters, Jalandhar. “A detailed order of prosecution has been passed. We have got the permission under section 19-A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, and it will be submitted in the court,” confirmed a top official of the vigilance bureau, who didn’t want to be named.
The prosecution sanction has mounted trouble for Inderbir, who in 2022 was indicted by the Supreme Court-appointed inquiry committee, led by justice Indu Malhotra (retd), for alleged dereliction of duty in connection with the security lapses during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit. The PM was stranded for half-an-hour on a flyover when he was travelling by road from Bathinda airport to Ferozepur on January 5, 2022.
The vigilance chargesheets are related to Inderbir’s tenure as DIG, Ferozepur. In both cases, the DIG is accused of taking a bribe, one from a drug peddler and another from a sub-inspector. The chargesheets were filed after the suspended deputy superintendent of police (DSP) and co-accused Lakhbir Singh Sandhu turned approver in the case.
Lakhbir recorded his confession before the Tarn Taran court and said he handed over the bribe money to Inderbir.
In the first case, DSP Lakhbir was booked for allegedly taking a ₹10-lakh bribe from a drug supplier, Pishora Singh, for not naming him in a Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act case registered by the Bhikhiwind police in Tarn Taran on July 3, 2022.
Later, Lakhbir told the VB and the court that his cousin Hira Singh had asked him to help Pishora, who was named in a 2022 drug case in Tarn Taran. Lakhbir said he had spoken to Inderbir via a WhatsApp call and requested him not to nominate Pishora in the matter.
According to the vigilance chargesheet, Inderbir allegedly demanded ₹12 lakh from Pishora. An amount of ₹9.97 lakh was recovered from the house of Hira Singh at the instance of Pishora, which was allegedly to be given to DIG Inderbir.
In the second case, Lakhbir and the then reader of the DIG, Barjinder Singh, were booked for allegedly extorting ₹23 lakh from a sub-inspector (SI) for not implicating him in a drugs case.
In this case, the sub-inspector was kept in illegal detention in Ferozepur on the directions of Inderbir, reads the chargesheet. Inderbir allegedly demanded ₹35 lakh to settle the matter, and Lakhbir, in his admission before the court, said that the SI gave ₹10 lakh and ₹13 lakh to Lakhbir at his office and house on December 13 and 15, 2021, respectively. Lakhbir said he handed over ₹23 lakh to Inderbir on December 21, 2021, at his official residence in Ferozepur.
“The trial was struck for want of prosecution sanction, as it has now been accorded, the case will resume in court”, said a VB official.
In 2017, too, Inderbir faced allegations of extortion of ₹23 lakh in a murder case when he was posted as Sangrur SSP. Capt Amarinder Singh, then CM, had ordered a vigilance probe. But the VB gave him a clean chit.
