ASI held for selling guns kept in police store

SON AND NEPHEW OF ACCUSED, INCHARGE OF STORE, NABBED TOO; 4 PISTOLS, CARTRIDGES RECOVERED SO FAR

BATALA:An assistant sub-inspector (ASI) in charge of the malkhana (store) of the Baltana civil lines police station along with his son and nephew was arrested on Sunday for allegedly selling arms in the market.

The accused are ASI Surinderjit Singh, Baljodh Singh (son) and Tajinder Singh Sabhi (nephew) who is the alleged mastermind behind the illegal trade of weapons.

Batala senior superintendent of police (SSP) Opinderjit Singh Ghumman said during an inspection of the weapons kept in the malkhana, it was found that as many as six pistols seized by the police in different cases, were missing. Police registered a case under Section 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Surinderjit.

“We recovered four weapons that were sold by the ASI. We are checking the record of all weapons kept in the store and once it is done we will be able to zero in on the exact number of weapons stolen by the ASI,” the SSP said.

As per information, the theft came to light when a Jora Singha village resident, who had deposited his pistol at the police station during the assembly elections last year, came to collect it. The cops were left red faced when they found the pistol was missing.

Failing to get any satisfactory reply, the man approached seniors who also pressurised him to remain mum. Later, the case was marked to the crime investigation agency, which found that Surinderjit’s son Baljodh sold a revolver to his friend Lovepreet Singh, son of Home Guards jawan Kashmir Singh.

Lovepreet used to brandish the pistol in the presence of his neighbourers, who called the cops. On the basis of the information Baljodh provided, police recovered a .32 bore revolver and two cartridges from Lovepreet. A Chinese pistol and four cartridges were recovered from Jasjeet Singh of Amritsar. A .32 bore revolver was recovered from Navroop Singh of Gobind Nagar while a .32 bore revolver from Gurbej Singh of Tarn Taran, the police said.