EX-DGP, 4 others indicted for letting off accused AIG
Police Complaints Authority report has recommended a reinvestigation of the case, preferably by registering a fresh FIR
CHANDIGARH : The Punjab home department has sought explanation from five police officers, including two senior IPS officers and a retired DGP, after the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) found them guilty of shoddy investigation in the custodial rape and extortion case against AIG Ashish Kapoor.
Four officers, including special DGP Sharad Satya Chauhan, ADGP Vibhu Raj, PPS officer Ramandeep Singh and inspector Bhagwant Singh Riar, who were in the special investigation team (SIT) to probe charges of custodial rape against the AIG, have been indicted by the PCA for “conducting the probe without applying their minds in order to delay and obstruct justice to a victim of custodial rape and extortion, thereby helping an accused AIG”.
Also indicted is the then DGP, Sidharth Chattopadhyay, for not applying his mind to the report of the SIT that gave a clean chit to the AIG. The SIT report was presented to Chattopadhyay on December 23, 2021, and on the same day he consigned the report to the records without caring to consult the Bureau of Investigation (BOI), the PCA stated. Hindustan Times has accessed the copy of the report prepared by PCA chairman Satish Chandra, a retired IAS officer. The PCA report has recommended a reinvestigation of the case, preferably by registering a fresh FIR.
Victim approached OCCU IG in 2019
The case pertains to a complaint received by the then IG, OCCU, Kunwar Vijay Partap, who during his visit to the Central Jail, Patiala, in 2019, got a written representation by the victim about custodial rape by the AIG when he was posted as superintendent at Central Jail, Amritsar.
The representation had also claimed that the complainant and three members of her family were wrongly convicted by a Dera Bassi court in an FIR registered at the behest of Kapoor. The FIR was registered at the Zirakpur police station on May 5, 2018, when Kapoor was posted as AIG, Punjab Vigilance Bureau.
The case was then marked for probe by OCCU DSP Jaskeerat Singh on the direction of the IG.
Jaskeerat recorded statements from 40 witnesses and collected documentary evidence within three months, nominating Kapoor as an accused in an FIR at the OCCU police station in Mohali in 2019. IG Partap completed his report on February 7, 2021, and handed it over to the SIT. The PCA claimed that the accused AIG managed to get the case transferred from OCCU, leading to the formation of the SIT. On December 23, 2021, the SIT submitted its report to the then DGP, Sidharth Chattopadhyay, giving Kapoor a clean chit without properly studying the available evidence.
Pointing out serious shortcomings in the SIT investigation, the PCA chairman said in the report that it also did not take into consideration the evidence placed before it by OCCU and the complainant.
Setting aside the findings of the SIT, the PCA chairman has recommended reinvestigation of the FIR against the rape victim and her family members.
Cops told to explain conduct in 2 weeks
The SIT members and Chattopadhyay (now retired) have been told to explain their conduct within two weeks from November 22, 2022.
The PCA, among other things, relied on the confessional statements of Hem Raj Mittal of Motia Developers Group, Zirakpur; DSP (Cyber Crime) Samarpal Singh and the video recorded at the Zirakpur police station, showing Kapoor beating the complainant.
It was here that the complainant’s mother was forced to sign cheques amounting to Rs 1 crore, which were later encashed by people linked to Kapoor, the report said. Mittal later admitted before the Mohali judicial magistrate that he had tendered false evidence during the trial of the complainant, her mother and brother at the behest of Kapoor.