More than two weeks after a SAS Nagar-based accountant was arrested for carrying drugs and fake currency in his car in Sector 38 (W), a former UT police inspector and two others have been arrested for planting the contraband.
The accountant Bhagwan Singh, who is still in Burail jail, was caught with 2.6-kg opium and Rs 15 lakh in fake currency on a tip-off from retired inspector Tarsem Singh Rana, a resident of Sector 42, who is now among those arrested.
Advocate Jatin Salwan, a resident of Sector 15, practising at the Punjab and Haryana high court and a resident of Ludhiana Narinder Singh are the other two accused. “We will get Bhagwan discharged from the case as he was falsely implicated,” a police official said.
Why the case turned on its head
During questioning, Bhagwan, who works at SAS Institute of Information Technology and Research, Phase 7, SAS Nagar, claimed innocence.
“The file that contained the drugs and money was given to me that day by a woman near a petrol pump in Panchkula. My boss Sukhbir Singh Shergill, the owner of the institute, had sent me to collect the file. He had told me that these were some papers related to a litigation from an NRI,” he told the police.
“We rounded up Sukhbir Shergill who claimed that he was supposed to have collected the file in his car and not Bhagwan. He said he had received calls and text messages from a Canadian number +1 (204) 400-0940 with the man at the other end identifying himself as Bansal. Bansal offered to help Shergill in a case that he had filed against Punjab Infotech and claimed to have documents relating to an alleged Rs 100-crore scam at Punjab Infotech,” said RR Sharma Maloya SHO.
{{/usCountry}}“We rounded up Sukhbir Shergill who claimed that he was supposed to have collected the file in his car and not Bhagwan. He said he had received calls and text messages from a Canadian number +1 (204) 400-0940 with the man at the other end identifying himself as Bansal. Bansal offered to help Shergill in a case that he had filed against Punjab Infotech and claimed to have documents relating to an alleged Rs 100-crore scam at Punjab Infotech,” said RR Sharma Maloya SHO.
{{/usCountry}}Bansal had told Shergill that his daughter has been terminated by Punjab Infotech after implication in a scam and thus he wanted to teach these officials a lesson.
The day of Bhagwan’s arrest
“On June 16, the day of the arrest, Bhagwan went to take the documents ostensibly sent by Bansal, even as Shergill was supposed to be the ones receiving the packet.
The same say retired UT inspector Tarsem Rana informed the police. The trap was meant for Shergill, but Bhagwan was found to be carrying drugs and fake currency in his car,” the SHO added.
Shergill also told the police that he suspected Narinder Singh against whom he had filed a cheating complaint of Rs 50 lakh. He also names Jatin Salwan, Singh’s lawyer.
In the process of verification of this claim using mobile call details, police claimed that Tarsem, Narinder and Salwan had been in regular touch with each other.
“We also questioned Tarsem, who acted as our informer. He claimed that Salwan had informed him of drugs being carried. Salwan claimed that Narinder had given him the information,” the SHO added.
All three have now been booked under Sections 29 (planting drugs) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act at the Maloya police station.
The accused have been remanded in one-day police custody.