Court discharges Punjab cop  in fake promotion orders' case

A local court has discharged Inspector Satwant Singh and another person in a three-year-old case involving the issuance of fake promotion and recruitment orders of Punjab Police personnel on forged signature of former DGP Siddharth Chattopadhyay.

However, the court will frame charges against the other six accused policemen -- Sandeep Kumar, Mani Katoch, Bahadur Singh, Kulwinder Singh, Harwinder Singh and Satinder Pal Singh.

The Chandigarh Police had filed a chargesheet under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act in the case. As per the chargesheet, Sandeep and Bahadur were working as a superintendent in the DGP office while Mani was working as a head constable. 

The Chandigarh Police registered a case against unidentified persons on the complaint of a DSP on January 12, 2022, alleging forgery of promotion and recruitment orders. The names of many police personnel, including constables, sub-inspectors and assistant sub-inspectors, were mentioned in the promotion orders issued by forging Chattopadhyay's signature.

The orders mentioned that 11 police personnel were promoted under the Punjab Police Rule, 1934, in recognition of outstanding services rendered by them. On verification by the Central Forensic Scientific laboratory (CFSL), it was found that the Chattopadhyay' signature had been forged to prepare fake orders.

Sajjal Sharma, the counsel for Inspector Satwant, however argued that the accused was being implicated, as at the time of the registration of the case, he was posted neither in the then DGP's office nor at any such post related to the top officer. Also, the promotion order on the basis of which the accused was being nominated was also found to be genuine in the CFSL report.

After hearing the arguments, the court discharged Satwant Singh and Sarabjit Singh and adjourned the case for November 11, 2025 for framing charges against the other six accused.