Cop to file a case against himself, 16 other policemen on court order

GREATER NOIDA: In a rare instance in the district, a police station in-charge has been ordered by a court to lodge an FIR against himself and 16 other cops, including another station officer, for false-ly implicating a local contractor in an extortion case and his subsequent custodial torture.

Chief judicial magistrate (CJM) Vinit Chaudhary on Monday ordered the registration of the FIR at Kasna police station against SHO Kasna Jitendra Kumar, anti-extortion cell in-charge and Bisrakh SO Ajay Sharma, five constables of Greater Noida police and some 10 unnamed cops.

The court's order came in the wake of Rahul, the contractor from Bodaki village, approaching it alleging that he, along with three others, was arrested last month by the anti-extortion cell on "false" charges of demanding Rs 5 lakh as extortion money from a Noida-based builder.

Rahul has alleged that SHO Kasna and others not only colluded with a fellow contractor Ombeer Pradhan, also a resident of Bodaki village, and his accomplice Satte to frame him and his three friends in the false case of extortion but also thrashed them in police custody for a crime that they had never committed. According to Rahul, Ombeer owed him Rs 6.08 lakh for completing a project of Prime Rose company in Delta I which he had repeatedly asked for.

In the complaint to the court, Rahul (26) has said that Ombeer got a contract for the project for which he was given a sub contract of Rs 9.5 lakh, following which he provided labour to the latter for carrying out the digging work. "The general manager of the company paid me Rs 2.5 lakh for the project and later Ombeer gave me Rs 92,000 for distributing it to the labourers. However, they still owed me Rs 6.08 lakh which I asked him to pay soon. He promised to pay the amount to me two days prior to Eid but he did not deliver upon the promise," read the complaint.

"The general manager of the company, Sumit Arora, confirmed that he has made the rest of the payment to Ombeer, but the latter did not pick up my call on September 1. He later called me up and hurled abuses at me saying that he will not give me the money. When I replied in his language, Ombeer said that he will see me," it added.

According to Rahul, two days later, he received a call from one Satte, a friend of Ombeer who asked him to come and collect his money from him at a resort in Greater Noida. "When I arrived at the resort around 1 pm, Ombeer got me arrested by policemen in plain clothes in the false case," read the complaint. "The same night the policemen assaulted me at the behest of Ombeer in custody and implicated me in the false case," he added.

When contacted, Gautam Budh Nagar SSP Love Kumar told TOI a case will be lodged at the Kasna police station and an officer senior to both the SHOs will investigate the case. "They might have sent a complaint to my office but no one has met me personally as far as I could recollect," he said.

Arora of Prime Rose said he "oversees execution of work in the company and does not want to get into the matter".