After duty hours, gambling was nabbed malkhana munshi’s favourite pastime

After the arrest of the malkhana Munshi of the Sidhwan Bet police station on the charge of stealing Rs 1.25 crore cash, lying as a case property in the malkhana of the police station, the questioning of the policeman was being done by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the SSP (Ludhiana rural).

The suspect, head constable, identified as Gurdas Singh, is accused of allegedly misappropriating cash allegedly by breaking seals of bags kept in his custody. The usurped case property also includes drug money that was seized from a gang of smugglers nabbed by the Jagraon CIA wing on December 13, 2023. The policeman’s retirement was due in coming weeks but he landed behind the bars at the police station.

A senior police official said the suspect’s addiction of gambling led him to lose Rs 1.25 crore to the evil. Since Munshi was the in-charge of the malkhana where Rs 1.25 crore cash was kept, he broke the seals of bags and stole the cash in several attempts. “As per the police rules, cash recovered in any crime cannot be kept at the malkhana for long. The malkhana in-charge has to move application in court to deposit the cash in the state’s treasury but the suspect intentionally delayed the deposit of the cash in the treasury as he had a motive to steal the entire money. So far, no other valuables or drugs lying at the malkhana was found to be stolen, still, records are being thoroughly checked if any other case property is missing,” the official said.

He said gambling was the favourite pastime of the suspect. After finishing his duty hours every evening, Munshi used to go for gambling, where he lost the entire money in the past over a year. He had even lied to his family that he had long duty hours and he had to stay at the police station till late night. In fact, he used to visit his acquaintance for gambling till late night hours. Family of the policeman was reportedly not aware that he had stolen money from the malkhana and lost the same in gambling.

Sources said role of some other police officials was also under scanner to inquire their connivance with the suspect.