A Delhi court summoned a station house officer and his battery of policemen from Preet Vihar police station, as they allegedly embezzled the case property in a theft case.
The case property originally consisted of 1.25 kg gold and Rs 2.8 lakh cash, which the policemen had reduced to a pair of earrings.
On March 29, 2008, a theft occurred at the house of Prem Kumar, a resident of Old Govind Pura, East Delhi. Various gold ornaments in excess of 1.25 kg and Rs 2.8 lakh was stolen. Within a few hours, the police arrested three persons and informed Kumar that they have the cracked the case and recovered all stolen items.
However, on March 30, 2008, Satya Vir Dagar, then SHO at Preet Vihar police station, told Kumar that no recovery was made except two earrings. Kumar then, through his counsel Inderjit Barnala, filed a criminal complaint against Dagar, sub-inspector Nirmal Jha and constable Naresh Kumar for misappropriating the case property.
In court, Barnala said: "The police officials planted two earrings on a local goon; the entire case property just disappeared from the police station. It's a criminal act; the policemen safeguarding public interest became criminals themselves". However, the prosecution said that Kumar cooked up a story to frame the policemen.