Faridkot: SP, DSP among 5 booked for graft

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Faridkot, June 2

The Faridkot police on Friday registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Corruption Act against Superintendent of Police (Investigation) Gagnesh Kumar, Deputy Superintendent of Police Sushil Kumar, Sub-Inspector Khem Chand Prashar, Malkeet Das and Jaswinder Singh.

The FIR is in connection with a murder case in which the police officers were accused of having taken Rs 20 lakh bribe to re-nominate a suspect.

Murder case

• A case under the PCA was registered against SP (Investigation) Gagnesh Kumar, DSP Sushil Kumar, SI Khem Chand Prashar, Malkeet Das and Jaswinder Singh
• The FIR is in connection with a murder case in which the officers were accused of having taken Rs 20L to re-nominate a suspect
• In Nov 2019, Hari Das was killed and Jarnail Das was booked, but given a clean chit by the police

The case has been registered on the basis of an inquiry conducted by Bureau of Investigation (BOI).

According to the FIR under Section 7, 7A, 8, 13(1)(b) of the PCA and 120-B of IPC at the Kotkapura police station, it has been alleged that the officers had received the bribe from Gagan Das, officiating head of Dera Harka Das at Kotsukhia village, through Malkeet and Jaswinder in November 2022.

A Vigilance Bureau (VB) team visited the district police headquarters on Friday and recorded the statements of the SP and DSP.

The SI did not appear before the VB team today.

In November 2019, Hari Das, the likely successor to the post of the dera head, was killed in the village. The murder was reportedly an outcome of a struggle for the top post of the dera.

The police had booked Jarnail Das, head of a branch of the dera in Moga district, on the complaint of Gagan. It was alleged that Jarnail was an aspirant for the top post and had hired some persons to eliminate his competition.

However, the suspect was given a clean chit in this case by the district police after an inquiry by a DIG-rank officer. This was opposed by the complainant.

It was then alleged that some police officers received Rs 20 lakh as bribe to re-nominate Jarnail as the main suspect in the case.

The DGP ordered the BOI to conduct an inquiry into the case headed by an IG-rank officer. The police officers were indicted for receiving bribe from Gagan. This inquiry report was sent to the VB for further action.

Faridkot SSP Harjeet Singh said the VB team had visited the police headquarters to record the statement of two officers and the district police cooperated with it.

No arrest has been made yet and there are no reports of any VB action.