Two city cops booked in corruption case

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 25

Two policemen, including assistant sub-inspector Surinder Pal Singh and Punjab Home Guards (PHG) Balbir Singh, posted at police division No. 8 in the Jalandhar Commissionerate, have been booked on corruption charges by the city police for slapping a false theft case on an auto-rickshaw driver and his brother.

A case under Section 7, 13(1) (D) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 was registered against the cops.

The victim’s pleas had been ignored by the Police Department and he had knocked the door of the National Human Rights Commission regarding the matter.

The main complainant in the case was Ram Singh (42), an auto-rickshaw driver and his cousin Suvneshwar Kumar (34), residents of Lamba Pind, Jalandhar.

As per the complaint submitted to the NHRC on March 16, 2015, a false case under Section 420, 379 of the IPC was slapped on Ram and Suvneshwar at police division No. 8 on January 9, 2015. Police officials registered an FIR on the allegation that the duo was found transferring LPG gas from the commercial cylinders to the domestic ones.

Cops then took into possession five commercial and two domestic gas cylinders. During an inquiry, it was found that five cylinders were owned by some Surinder Singh of Talwar Sweet Shop, while two were owned by the applicant himself. The complainant alleged that apart from cylinder, the police had also showed false recovery of a flute, an instrument used to transfer gas from a commercial cylinder to a domestic one.

The accused cops had then snatched Rs 7,000 from Ram, while Rs 2,400 from his brother Suvneshwar during frisking. Later, the accused cop reached the house of the applicant and demanded Rs 20,000 on the plea that senior police officials had sought the amount to drop the case against her husband and brother-in-law, but the cop took away only Rs 800 from the woman.

Later, the accused cops demanded Rs 5,000 and Rs 3,000 from the applicant to settle the case and the applicant had recorded their demand in his mobile phone which he produced before the NHRC.

As per the FIR, later the two cops again went to the house of the applicant and asked them to appear at the CIA staff office as their hand impressions were required. The applicant said when they went to the CIA staff, another two false cases were slapped on them, including DDR 17 and under Section 110 of the CrPC by the Jalandhar police.

Interestingly, when the applicant inquired from the police why these two cases were slapped on them, police officials Malkit and Jagjit told them that cases were slapped on the basis of a dossier supplied by the Police Commissioner and here the applicant also recorded the voice of both cops in his mobile phone. As per the FIR, the applicant produced all voice recordings before the Vigilance Bureau, but one DSP-rank officer later called up the applicant and said action could not be taken against the police official as directed by the senior officials.

When all doors to get justice closed, the applicant approached the human rights commission for justice, following which one ADCP-rank official of the city police conducted an inquiry and found the cops guilty. The police later also sought the opinion of DA (Legal), who opined that the cops had committed the offences and should be booked on corruption charges.

ACP (North) BIS Kahlon confirmed the registration of the case against the cops.