VB files challan against AIG Ashish Kapoor, ASI

MOHALI : The Vigilance Bureau on Saturday submitted the charge sheet against AIG Ashish Kapoor and assistant sub inspector (ASI) Harvinder Singh, arrested in a graft case on October 6, in a local Mohali court.

VB submitted the charge sheet under Section 7 (public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect of an official act) of the Prevention of Corruption Act in the court of Parminder Singh Grewal, additional district and sessions judge.

On October 6, the bureau had arrested the AIG for taking a bribe of ₹1 crore through different cheques. Kapoor was then posted as the commandant, 4th IRB, Pathankot. He is currently lodged in the Patiala jail.

As per a VB spokesperson, during his posting as the Amritsar Central Jail superintendent, in 2016, Kapoor had got acquainted with a woman inmate, Poonam Rajan of Sector 30, Kurukshetra, who was on judicial remand in a case.

Poonam, along with her mother Prem Lata, brother Kuldeep Singh and sister-in-law Preeti, was also in police remand in a cheating case registered at the Zirakpur police station. Kapoor went to the station and convinced Poonam’s mother Prem Lata to help her get bail and acquittal from the court.

Kapoor, in connivance with Pawan Kumar, the then SHO of Zirakpur police station, and ASI Harjinder Singh got Preeti declared innocent in the case.

In lieu of that favour, Kapoor obtained signatures of Prem Lata on different cheques amounting to ₹1 crore and deposited them under the names of his known people and got them encashed through ASI Harjinder. The bureau had also claimed that the receipts of the jewellery found in Kapoor’s locker were in the name of a Kurukshetra-based woman and were addressed to her Kurukshetra residence. Refuting the allegations, Ashish Kapoor claimed that the jewellery in his locker was purchased on his debit card from his salary account.

The VB had produced the receipts as evidence of the jewellery amounting to ₹13 lakh weighing 400.14 gm which the Kurukshetra woman had received from the jeweller. The vigilance had produced the statements of 11 witnesses in the court who claimed that they got cheques encashed that were allegedly taken by Kapoor from the Kurukshetra woman and her mother for dropping charges against them. DSP (Intelligence) Pawan Kumar and ASI Harjinder were also nominated as accused in the FIR.