Punjab DIG bribery case: Court sends ‘middleman’ Kirshanu Sharda to 9-day CBI remand

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Court, Chandigarh, has granted a 9-day remand of Kirshanu Sharda — who was arrested along with suspended Punjab Police DIG Harcharan Singh Bhullar in an alleged bribery case — to the CBI.

The CBI had filed the application before the Chandigarh CBI court under Section 187 of the BNSS, 2023, seeking Sharda’s police custody for 12 days.

He was produced in a court today. The CBI had arrested him from Sector 21, Chandigarh, red-handed while accepting a bribe, purportedly on behalf of DIG Harcharan Singh Bhullar, on October 16.

As per the FIR, the officer was allegedly seeking recurring monthly illegal payments from the complainant through Kirshanu Sharda. Both accused were arrested on the complaint of a scrap dealer from Mandi Gobindgarh, Naresh Batta. The complainant had alleged that Bhullar demanded a bribe of Rs 8 lakh through a middleman (Kirshanu) to settle a 2023 FIR lodged at the Sirhind police station and to ensure no further coercive action was taken against him.

Narender Singh, public prosecutor of the CBI, said that the agency had received a diary, 100 GB data from different devices and long chats with other public servants.

The CBI said that this information and data would be confirmed with the accused. The link with other public servants as shown in the documents will also be verified.

However, Gurbir Singh Sandhu, advocate appearing on behalf of the accused Sharda, said that the accused was being falsely implicated in the case. Sandhu argued that there was no direct link of the accused with complainant and the suspended DIG.

The CBI arrested the accused and made him sit in the car and forced him to call Bhullar.

After hearing of the arguments, the court has granted 9 days remand of Sharda to the CBI.

During searches at various premises linked to the suspended DIG in Punjab and Chandigarh, the CBI seized substantial cash and incriminating material, including cash of approximately Rs 5 crore, documents pertaining to immovable properties and assets in Punjab, jewellery weighing about 1.5 kg, keys of two luxury vehicles (Mercedes and Audi), 22 luxury watches, locker keys, 40 litres of imported liquor, one double-barrel gun, one pistol, one revolver, and one air gun along with ammunition, among other things.