Day after FIR against two ex-digs, Ferozepur DSP starts investigation
FEROZEPUR: The Ferozepur police on Wednesday started the investigation into a corruption and criminal conspiracy case registered against two former deputy inspectors general (prisons) for allegedly discarding drugs nabbed from the district jail inmates without informing the higher authorities.
The FIR was registered on Tuesday night, a day after the Hindustan Times reported that how Punjab director general of police (DGP) VK Bhawra on Monday took a U-turn and withdrew the orders to register a case against the two former jail officials — Lakhminder Singh Jakhar and Sukhdev Singh Saggu. Jakhar is said to be a close relative of Aam Aadmi Party Atam Nagar MLA Kulwant Singh Sidhu.
Senior superintendent of police (SSP), Ferozepur, Charanjit Singh, who on Monday had confirmed that the DGP had called back the case file, said: “No laxity or delay has been made in registering the case. Law took its own course in the matter and the case was registered on the basis of the inquiry report submitted by the Punjab Bureau of Investigation (BOI).”
The duo has been booked under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 217 (public servant disobeying direction of law with intent to save person from punishment or property from forfeiture), and 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) besides under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, Excise Act, and Prevention of Corruption Act.
Deputy superintendent of police (DSP), Ferozepur City, Satwinder Singh Virk, who is heading the probe, said: “We are probing the corruption charges levelled against the two. We are scrutinising the documents provided by the complainant in support of the allegations, and if need be, the official jail records will be further examined.”
The matter pertains to the period between 2005 and 2011, when Jakhar and Saggu were posted as jail superintendents at Ferozepur. According to the complaint filed by Karamjit Singh Bhullar, who was posted as an assistant jail superintendent, the two reported only one incident of seizure to police despite making as many as 241 recoveries of intoxicants and mobile phones from the prison inmates.
Jakhar and Saggu were indicted in the inquiry carried out the Boi’s inspector general Gautam Cheema, who had submitted the report in December 2021. As there was a delay in registering an FIR, the complainant had moved the Punjab and Haryana high court, which issued a notice to the Punjab Police and sought an actiontaken report by May 16. Repeated attempts to contact the two former jail officials remained futile as all calls made on their phone numbers went unanswered.