Munshi booked after SIT submits report

BATHINDA: Police have registered a case against head constable Sandeep Singh after a special investigation team (SIT) submitted its probe report on 13 weapons, ammunition and drug money missing from the custody of Dialpura police station.

A resident of Adarsh Nagar, Sandeep served as munshi of the malkhana (designated place to store case property) at the station for seven months till April 2021. He has been absent from duty after the scandal surfaced in June this year.

Sandeep, who has been suspended, was booked under Section 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code.

Police officials said the accused cop’s conduct was under the scanner and it cannot be ruled out that he sold weapons and ammunition to anti-social elements.

A two-member SIT headed by the Bathinda superintendent of police (SP), headquarters, Bhupinder Singh, submitted a detailed report to the local SSP on Thursday, where Sandeep was termed as the suspect.

FIR was registered on the complaint of the Bathinda SSP’s office that stated that action will be initiated if the role of more police personnel or private persons emerged in further investigation. On November 25, HT reported the SIT’s findings in the matter which has been a cause of major embarrassment for the police authorities.

SP said 13 weapons of different calibres were found missing from the malkhana, which otherwise were mentioned in the police records of custody with the rural police station.

Police sources said 368 bullets, meant for the use of the police, were also missing when the actual stock was counted.

The FIR lodged on SIT’s findings says that Khanna’s interrogation led the police to Sahil Kumar, a resident of Rampura town of Bathinda.

“During police questioning, Sahil revealed that he had bought the pistol, which was recovered from a drug peddler Ritik, from Sandeep. The same was handed over to Ritik for drug peddling,” stated the FIR.