LUDHIANA: The Court of Additional Sessions Judge Dr Ajit Atri has convicted 13 policemen in a 20 year old corruption case.
All have been sentenced to undergo imprisonment of 5 years each and were taken into custody immediately after the pronouncement of verdict by the court. Fine of Rs 10,000 each was also imposed upon the accused policemen.
Those convicted include Sub-Inspector Darshan Ram of Barnala, Head Constable Milkha Singh resident of Ropar, Head Constables Jaswinder Singh and Sartaj Singh, both residents of Ludhiana, Head Constable Amrik Singh of Jagraon in Ludhiana, Head Constable Amrik Singh of Adampur in Jalandhar, Head Constable Kuldeep Singh of Police Colony of Division No.5, Ludhiana, Head Constable Jai Kishan of Kishore Nagar, near Samrala Chowk, Ludhiana, Head Constable Baldev Singh, New Shivpuri, Ludhiana, Constable Palwinder Singh of Bakshiwal village, PS Kalanaur, Gurdaspur, Constable Rakesh Kumar of Indra Colony, Industrial Area-A, Ludhiana, Constable Amrik Singh resident of Bhangali Kalan village, Majitha, in Amritsar and SPO Prem Singh of Dehra tehsil in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh.
Delivering the verdict, the court stated: “The convicts are police officials who are supposed to come to the rescue of the victims of the incident and are to provide them the redressal at the very initial stage of the dispute rather than taking the benefit of someone’s difficulty to gain financially. The impact of the police corruption could be far reaching.
“The accused as a group were indulging in the act of corruption in a very organized manner. Had there been no sting operation by the alleged co-accused, their sinister designs would not have come to light. The acts of the convicts spread over the large scale and in various fields make it more serious”.
The complainant Subhash Chander Kundra, a Katty resident, was also made accused in the case but he was acquitted by the court. He had carried out the sting operation of accused persons taking and talking about bribe money. He has claimed himself to be the whistleblower and arrayed as an accused of abetment of corruption instead of making him as witness. The police had recovered the bribe money from five of the accused ranging from Rs 100 to 500.
Divulging the details, Additional Public Prosecutor Amandeep Singh Adiwal apprised that a case against the accused persons was registered at Division No. 6 police station on April 20, 2003.
On that day, Snehdeep Sharma, DSP, Industrial Area Ludhiana (now AIG, State Narcotics Control Bureau, Ludhiana) was present in his office at Sherpur Chowk, Ludhiana, where he came to know from reliable sources that some bad elements/gamblers of the city, against whom, various cases for gambling and fraud have already been registered, have opened an office under the garb of selling lottery tickets approved by the Punjab Government.
But actually, they in connivance with their accomplices, were running the bid trade of darra-satta (gambling). Instead of selling original lottery tickets approved by the Punjab Government pertaining to the daily draw, they were issuing slips/chits prepared by themselves and in order to do their illegal business, they have connived with various police officials, who used to provide prior information to them about any action likely to be taken against them by the police in lieu of illegal gratification.
He also received secret information that some unknown person(s) have kept VCD cassettes in the suggestion box installed outside Police Station Division No. 6 Ludhiana, upon which, he directed the then SHO to take out the VCD cassettes from suggestion box and bring the same to his office immediately. The said cassettes were taken into possession. The accused were arrested and put to trial. During trial, all the accused pleaded innocence but after appreciating the evidence on record, the court found them guilty.