How Mandi Gobindgarh scrap dealer ensnared Punjab top cop

It is not often that a scrap dealer leads a Deputy Inspector General (DIG)-rank officer into a CBI trap. But Akash Batta, a Mandi Gobindgarh resident, did just that to Ropar Range DIG Harcharan Singh Bhullar, who was arrested in a Rs 8-lakh bribery case.

Batta is no ordinary scrap dealer — in the police’s submission at the Fatehgarh Sahib court, he is “a habitual offender and facing trial in three different cases”.

As bags after bags of recovered material were loaded into a CBI vehicle at Bhullar’s Sector 40 house, the story of how the scrap dealer ensnared a pedigreed IPS officer with “years of field experience” made its way to the discussions within police circles.

The lure of Mandi Gobindgarh and Khanna scrap businesses has proven to be the undoing of many IRS, IPS officers and CGST employees in the past as well, with multi-crore billing scams coming to light frequently. Bhullar, a 2014 President’s Police Medal for Meritorious Service awardee and son of former Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Mehal Singh Bhullar, is the latest addition on the list.

Ensnared on the complaint of the scrap dealer, the DIG was finally undone by a CBI-monitored phone call with his aide, Kirshanu Sharda, a Chandigarh-based hockey player.

It is alleged that Bhullar was demanding “sewa paani” from the scrap dealer. The payment was received in form of monthly instalments to avoid police coercion on the basis of a cheating case registered against Batta at the Sirhind police station in Fatehgarh Sahib (under Sections 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, 120-B of the Indian Penal Code).

The brief FIR, registered at on October 29, 2023, states that a police party patrolling and intercepting anti-social elements received information about Batta and accomplices preparing fake bills/bilties. They were accused of loading scrap into trucks from New Delhi and selling it at furnaces in Sirhind and Mandi Gobindgarh in order to evade taxes. Batta and two others were arrested.

“An SIT later found that an FIR was untenable as tax evasion was a CGST offence and not falling under IPC. Ropar Range DIG HS Bhullar, however, overrode the SIT report and continued with the investigation,” sources said.

Batta in his complaint to the CBI stated that no chargesheet had been filed in the case even after two years.

Earlier in his bail application, he too had submitted that FIR shows evasion of tax, if any, by the petitioner would be an offence under the provisions of Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 — a special statute providing complete mechanism for the punishment of any offence attracted for evasion of tax. His submission added that an FIR cannot be registered under IPC.

All eyes on Vigilance

The immediate fallout of a top Punjab Police officer being caught in a bribery case was questions being raised about the functioning and efficacy of the Vigilance Bureau (VB).

“Are they good enough to only nab patwaris, JEs and forest guard with petty bribery amounts, while DIGs polish off crores of rupees. Can it be believed that the VB had no clue of what he was doing here for past one year? What must be happening in far-off districts?” questioned a Mohali-based advocate.

The criticism also comes in the backdrop of Punjab withdrawing general consent to CBI to investigate and arrest central government employees in the state. Currently, CBI gets consent to investigate and make arrests on a case-to-case basis.

Bhullar, who headed the Special Investigation Team that questioned Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia in a drugs-related case, is being represented by HS Dhanoa in the court — the same lawyer who appeared for Majithia.