Three policemen on the run after being named in bribery case

JAIPUR: Assistant Commissioner of Police for Jhotwara circle Aash Mohammad, station house officer (SHO) of Jhotwara police station Pradeep Charan and investigative officer of the case sub-inspector Ram Lal are on run after a bribery racket busted by the Rajasthan Anti-corruption Bureau (ACB) on Wednesday night.

Additional director general of ACB Saurabh Srivastava said, “We are finding the involvement of ACP Mohammed, SHO Charan and IO Ram Lal in the busted bribery racket. After finding their role action will be taken against the accused. Notices were sent to the police officers but they have skipped ACB interrogation and are missing from Wednesday.”

ACB had on Wednesday arrested assistant public prosecutor (APP) Chandrabhan Joshi, a police head constable of Jhot- wara police station identified as Battu Khan and a middleman Sumant Singh for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 1 lakh. Battu Khan was the reader of Jhotwara SHO Pradeep Charan. He has been suspended.

“We have concrete evidence against Aash Mohammed. He was the one who arranged the entire deal. We are trying to find him,” said a senior ACB officer.

IG ACB Dinesh MN said that a complaint was registered by one Rajveer Singh Ganganeri with the ACB. Rajveer had registered a case at the Jhotwara police station in connection with a fraud related to a land. The case was investigated by CID-CB. The accused in the case was to be arrested and Rajveer was to get Rs 36 lakh.

“To make the arrest and get Rajveer the money, Jhotwara policemen demanded 10 percent o f t he t o t a l money which amounts to Rs 3.60 lakh. After negotiations, the policemen agreed to accept Rs 2.5 lakh,” said the officer.

The ACB complainant Rajveer had another case registered against him with Jhotwara police station under sections 420, 406,467, 468 and 471 of IPC. He was arrested and released on bail. His wife is a co-accused. In order to remove her name from the case, Battu Khan and Sumant Singh were demanding Rs 5 lakh and had already received Rs 3 lakh.

After verification of the complaint, a team under the supervision of Add SP, ACB Narottam Varma laid a trap and arrested Battu Khan, middleman Sumant Singh and public prosecutor Chandrabhan Singh. The lawyer handles cases registered with Jhotwara police station.

Meanwhile, Khan and middlemen Sumant Singh were presented before the court from where they were sent in ACB remand till February 16. APP Singh has been sent to judicial custody.