Cops let go smuggler after taking ₹1.5lakh bribe, arrested
TARNTARAN: In a major embarrassment to the Punjab police, a station house officer (SHO) and his gunman, a head constable (HC), were arrested for allegedly accepting a bribe of ₹1.5 lakh from a Ferozepur-based heroin smuggler to let him off after he was arrested in relation to smuggling of heroin, on Tuesday.
SHO Baljinder Singh and head constable Jatinder Singh of the Harike police station have been arrested and booked by the investigation cell at the same police station, the police said.
As per information, the SHO had arrested three Ferozepurbased heroin smugglers with 520 gm heroin, valued at around ₹2.5 crore in the international market, on September 30. However, the SHO showed the arrest of only two persons in the first information report (FIR).
As per the daily crime dairy, Tarn Taran deputy superintendent of police (DSP) (investigation) Ashwini Kumar interrogated the two accused —Sukhdev Singh and Pargat Singh of Ferozepur— and the duo confessed that the SHO and the head constable had released their third accomplice, Jagdev Singh, after accepting ₹1.5 lakh bribe.
SP Tilak Raj said a case under Sections 7, 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act had been registered against the duo at Harike police station.
After getting a tip-off about heroin smuggling on Saturday, the Harike police had laid a naka near Akalia farmhouse in Booh village. Sources said the police had arrested Sukhdev Singh, Pargat Singh and Jagdev Singh. The police also recovered a Maruti Suzuki Alto car, used by the accused to smuggle the drugs.
After the arrest of three accused, Jagdev offered money to the police and the SHO let him off and also didn’t mention his name in the FIR, sources said.