Patiala narcotics cell inspector held for Rs 1 lakh graft

The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) on Tuesday arrested Inspector Gurinder Singh, in-charge, Anti-Narcotics Task Force, Patiala, while he was accepting a bribe of Rs 1 lakh.

The Anti-Narcotics Task Force is a specialised unit formed to check drug smuggling. In a bid to extort money from a Nabha family, the accused had allegedly threatened to implicate its member in a false drug smuggling case.

A VB spokesperson said Gurinder was arrested based on a complaint lodged by Pooja, a resident of Rohti Pul village, Nabha tehsil in Patiala district.

He said the complainant had approached the VB alleging that the accused Inspector was threatening to implicate her father in a false NDPS case if he failed to give him a bribe of Rs 3 lakh. However, the deal was stuck at Rs 1.50 lakh and the accused received Rs 50,000 as the first instalment of the bribe money on Sunday.

The spokesperson said after a preliminary inquiry, a VB team laid a trap during which the police officer was arrested while he was accepting Rs 1 lakh from the complainant in the presence of two official witnesses. A case has been registered against the accused under the Prevention of Corruption Act at the VB police station, Patiala range.