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Ex-Sarnath SHO, 3 others booked for extorting ₹41 lakh from ‘gamblers’ in Varanasi
The video footage of the CCTV of the apartment building had earlier gone viral in which inspector Paramhans Gupta along with others was spotted going along with cash
The then station house officer of Varanasi’s Sarnath police station and three others were booked for impersonation and robbery on Thursday for allegedly looting ₹41 lakh from the flat of a residential apartment where some traders were involved in gambling on the intervening night of November 7 and 8, confirmed senior police officials here on Friday.
The video footage of the CCTV of the apartment building had earlier gone viral in which inspector Paramhans Gupta along with others was spotted going along with cash.
The inspector was suspended soon by the Varanasi police authorities on Monday and sent to reserve police lines. He was later attached to CB-CID during the suspension period.
The current in-charge of Sarnath police station Vivek Kumar Tripathi has lodged an FIR at the same police station accusing the former inspector, his aide Dharmendra Chaubey, who posed himself as the chief minister’s OSD, the owner of Rudra Heights, where some people were gambling, and other unknown persons of robbery and impersonation.
HT has accessed the copy of the FIR which shows that the former inspector has been charged under Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) sections 319(2) for impersonation and 309(4) for robbery as well as section 3/4 of the Public Gambling Act.
As per the FIR, the inspector (now suspended) arrived at Rudra Heights with his aide Dharmendra Chaubey and extorted money from the gambling traders and collected the amount in two bags after showing fear of legal action.
The FIR said the accused took away ₹41 lakh from the place but no complaint was received in this regard. Later, Sarnath police station in-charge Vivek Kumar Tripathi himself lodged the FIR as it was a serious offence.
The suspended inspector’s name is not new to controversy. A few years ago, his name had surfaced in a matrimonial dispute during his posting as sub-inspector at Hazratganj police station. He was suspended even then also.
In a similar incident recently in Kanpur, four policemen, including the then Rail Bazar police station in-charge Vijay Darshan Sharma, were suspended on October 21 for recovering gold that was stolen from the house of a teacher and then allegedly selling it to a local jeweller.
The incident came to light after ornaments and valuables worth ₹25 lakh were stolen from the house of a teacher Shalini Dubey, a resident of Barra, on September 30.
The thief was arrested by Barra station in-charge Rajesh Sharma with the help of the CCTV footage. The arrested thief further revealed during interrogation that the Rail Bazar police had held his gang of thieves earlier but later released them after keeping the stolen gold with them.
