Cop booked for bribery, extortion on the run

A day after the Haryana State Vigilance Bureau arrested the head constable of Kherki Daula police station and booked its station house officer(SHO) for accepting

A day after the Haryana State Vigilance Bureau arrested the head constable of Kherki Daula police station and booked its station house officer(SHO) for accepting bribes, the SHO remains untraceable, said officials.

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According to the Faridabad vigilance department, one Naveen Bhutani, who runs a call centre and sells religious products in the UK and Australia, had approached the senior officers of the department with a complaint against two officials of the Kherki Daula police station for allegedly extorting Rs 57 lakh from him and demanding another payment of Rs 10 lakh.

In his complaint, Bhutani alleged that he had started a business with the owner of a Karnal-based school, as he had a payment gateway for easy transactions. “My Faridabad based friend had introduced me to these people who run this school. Together, we earned Rs 1.2 crore, of which they were supposed to give me Rs 80 lakh, but they started avoiding me and wanted the entire money,” he said in his complaint.

Bhutani said that the SHO, Vishal Kumar, assaulted him in his office and got his laptop data scanned, following which he allegedly asked for Rs 1 crore for his release.

PK Aggarwal, the director general of police (DGP), Vigilance, said that the policemen threatened the complainant and told him they would put him behind bars for his lifetime. “They got him to make calls to his family members, friends and relatives to arrange money,” he said.

Around 12.15am on October 30, the SHO took him to a farmhouse 12 kilometres from the police station and the next morning, three policemen escorted him to his car and kept on driving around the area until he arranged money, the complainant told vigilance officials.

A friend of the complainant, who was bringing the money, was met by the head constable, Amit Kumar, near Panchgaon on the Western Peripheral Expressway and collected the same. The police dropped them near Rajiv Chowk around 6.30pm, but took his car documents, laptop, cheque book and asked him to remain in touch.

Bhutani did not leave his house for a few days. He said he was regularly in touch with the head constable and started recording all calls.

The head constable told Bhutani over phone that each currency packet was short by around Rs 5,000. When Bhutani asked the police to return his laptop as it has entire business data, they asked him for Rs 10 lakh more, said officials, following which the complainant approached the Vigilance Bureau.

Aggarwal said the policemen called Bhutani to an eatery, Vishal Dhaba, where he paid the head constable Rs 5 lakh. Accompanying officials caught Kumar red-handed.

“A case under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 384 (extortion ), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 342 (wrongful confinement) of Indian Penal Code has been registered against the police officials. Meanwhile, the investigation is in progress,” Aggarwal said.