Punjab Vigilance Bureau busts job racket in police, arrests two employees

Jalandhar, June 12

The state Vigilance Bureau (VB) has busted a recruitment scam in the police and arrested two employees for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 26 lakh from 102 persons in lieu Class IV jobs in the force.

Those arrested are Tarlochan Pal, posted in the 3rd IRB as a cleaner and resident of Mohalla Begampur in Adampur, Jalandhar, and Surinderpal, posted as a barber at the Punjab Police Academy in Phillaur and resident of Sikri village in Nilokheri, Karnal, Haryana.

VB officials said the suspects were arrested following an investigation into a complaint lodged at the Chief Minister’s Anti-Corruption Action Line portal by complainant Surinder Singh, a resident of Nanglan village in Garhshankar, Hoshiarpur.

They said the arrested duo was produced in a Jalandhar court on Wednesday and remanded in two-day police custody. The officials said they would be interrogated to get information on how many other innocent persons were deceived and the total money collected in this recruitment fraud.

VB officials from Jalandhar Range conducted a preliminary investigation into the charges made by the complainant and found these to be correct, leading to the registration of a fraud case against both suspects.

It was found that Tarlochan Pal and Surinderpal had falsely assured the gullible persons that 560 Class IV vacancies were to be filled in the Punjab Police in the coming months. Acting in collusion, they demanded Rs 25,000 per person for a job in the police and hence collected a huge money from numerous individuals across the state.

Tarlochan Pal received a total of Rs 18,09,100 as bribe, which was deposited into his various bank accounts. Of this amount, he transferred Rs 5,45,000 to Surinderpal’s HDFC Bank account. In addition to this, Surinderpal received Rs 7,93,826 in his bank account separately, the VB officials said.

A case under Sections 420 and 120-B of the IPC, and under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered against both suspects at the VB police station, Jalandhar Range. During interrogation, Surinderpal is learnt to have told the VB that he and Tarlochan Pal took the money from job aspirants and gave Rs 9 lakh to two employees posted at the Punjab Police Headquarters, Chandigarh. He revealed that of the Rs 9 lakh, they had returned some money to him after they failed to get the aspirants recruited. However, the rest of the money was never returned.

During the investigation, the statements of various victims were recorded. More victims are likely to appear before the VB in the case.

Lured gullible persons

• Suspects Tarlochan Pal & Surinderpal had assured gullible persons that 560 Class IV vacancies were to be filled in the police
• They demanded Rs 25K per person for a job in the police and collected a huge amount from individuals across the state