Ex-Moga SSP Sharma shifted to Patiala jail on ‘security grounds’

: Former Moga senior superintendent of police (SSP) Charanjit Singh Sharma was shifted to the Patiala jail on security grounds after a Faridkot court sent him to 14-day judicial custody in the Behbal Kalan firing case.

He was arrested from his Hoshiarpur residence on January 27 by the special investigation team (SIT) of the Punjab Police. He was in police remand since.

In the Patiala jail, Sharma was kept in one of the special security cells where other cops facing trials or serving sentences are lodged. There is no such cell in the Faridkot jail from where he was transferred within two hours.

Sharma is learnt to have cited potential harm that some inmates, who were arrested during his tenure as Faridkot and Moga SSP, could inflict on him.

Earlier, the defence counsel moved an application that he should be kept in any jails of Punjab apart from the ones in Faridkot, Moga and Bathinda as he was not secure there.

The former SSP’s counsel also submitted a letter of state intelligence agencies claiming threat to his life. The court dismissed the defence plea and sent Sharma to the Faridkot jail after his medical exam was conducted at a hospital. Later, the Faridkot jail authorities wrote to ADGP (jails) seeking Sharma’s transfer citing security issue and got the nod.