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Weapons, drug money missing from police station: Absconding cop booked
Police officials said the accused cop Sandeep Singh’s conduct was under the scanner, and it cannot be ruled out that he sold weapons and ammunition to the anti-social elements
The district police have registered a criminal case against head constable Sandeep Singh after a special investigation team (SIT) submitted its probe report on 13 weapons, ammunition and drug money missing from the custody of Dialpura police station.
A resident of Adarsh Nagar accused Sandeep Singh, served as munshi of malkhana (designated place to store the case property) at Dialpura police station for seven months till April 2021. He is reportedly absent from duty after the scandal surfaced in June this year.
Sandeep, who has been suspended, was booked under section 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code at Dialpura police station.
Police officials said the accused cop’s conduct was under the scanner, and it cannot be ruled out that he sold weapons and ammunition to the anti-social elements.
A two-member SIT headed by the Bathinda superintendent of police (SP), headquarters, Bhupinder Singh, submitted a detailed report to the local SSP on Thursday, where Sandeep was termed as the suspect.
FIR case was registered on the complaint of the ‘Bathinda SSP office’ which stated that action would be initiated if the role of more police personnel or private persons emerged in the further investigation. On November 25, HT reported the SIT’s findings in the matter which has been a cause of major embarrassment for the police authorities.
SP said 13 weapons of different calibres were found missing from the malkhana, which otherwise were mentioned in the police records of custody with the rural police station.
Police sources said 368 bullets, meant for the use of the police, were also missing when the actual stock was counted.
“Dialpura police authorities had 2,000 bullets in their possession, but during an audit, the SIT found only 1,632 cartridges. A total of 332 bullets of 9mm were among 368 missing from the armoury. Similarly, a sum of ₹7.20 lakh seized from a drug peddler in June 2021 was also not found in police custody,” said an official privy to the investigation details.
On June 11, HT reported the disappearance of weapons from the police station.
On May 27 this year, Bathinda’s crime investigation agency (CIA) arrested one Ritik Khanna with drugs and found a .32-bore pistol in his possession. During the investigation, it was found that the weapon belonged to one Pritam Singh of Bhagta Bhai Ka town. He had surrendered the weapon at the Dialpura police station.
FIR lodged on SIT’s findings say that Khanna’s interrogation led the police to Sahil Kumar, a resident of Rampura town of Bathinda.
“During police questioning, Sahil revealed that he had bought the pistol, which was recovered from Ritik, from (the accused) Sandeep, who was posted munshi at Dialpura police station. The same was handed over to Ritik for drug peddling,” stated the FIR.
