E-Paper
Suspended Chandigarh Police SHO, four others charged in ₹5 lakh graft case
On June 30 last year, CBI had booked Jaswinder and middleman Bhagwan for asking a Manimajra man for ₹5 lakh in lieu of not registering a cheating case against him
Suspended Chandigarh Police inspector, Jaswinder Kaur, along with her four accomplices, including a constable, are set to face a criminal trial as a special CBI court on Thursday framed charges against them in a ₹5-lakh graft case.
With this Jaswinder will be the first female UT Police personnel to face trial for bribery.
Others, against whom charges have been framed, include Bhagwan Singh, from Sangrur, who was arrested for taking ₹1 lakh as bribe on behalf of Jaswinder, then posted as the Manimajra SHO; UT Police constable Sarabjit Singh, then posted at the Manimjara station, and Randhir Singh and Narpinder Singh, both from Sangrur.
Charges against them have been framed under Sections 7 and 7A of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 467 (forgery of valuable security) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the Indian Penal Code.
The court will start recording evidence in the case on June 1.
On June 30 last year, CBI had booked Jaswinder and middleman Bhagwan on the complaint of Manimajra resident Gurdeep Singh, who had accused her of asking him for ₹5 lakh in lieu of not registering a cheating case against him.
Jaswinder had surrendered before a court on July 25 after remaining on the run for 25 days. Both Jaswinder and Bhagwan were later granted bail.
Accused constable Sarabjit, Narpinder and Randhir were never arrested and had joined the CBI investigation.
The complaint
According to the complainant, Gurdeep Singh, he had met Jaswinder at the Manimajra police station on June 10, 2020, to inform her about a cheating case filed against him by Randhir and Narpinder.
He had claimed that Randhir had falsely accused him of taking ₹27 lakh from him for getting his wife a government job and not returning the amount after failing to secure a job for her.
Gurdeep complained that Jaswinder, however, directed him to refund the amount to Randhir and threatened to register a case against him if he didn’t pay up ₹5 lakh as bribe.
On June 19, as per the instructions from Jaswinder, Gurdeep handed over ₹2 lakh to Bhagwan to be paid to her.
According to CBI, Jaswinder called Gurdeep to the police station again on June 21 and took his signature on blank pages, while threatening to lodge an FIR against him if he failed to pay the remaining ₹3 lakh by July 1.
CBI investigations pointed out that it was constable Sarabjit, who had taken Gurdeep’s signature on the blank pages, following which a forged compromise document was prepared on the dictation of Randhir and Narpinder.
