Ex-SSP quizzed; by economic offences wing CM defends dope tests

PATIALA: The economic offences wing (EOW) of the state police on Monday interrogated controversial former Moga SSP Raj Jit Singh for over seven hours in connection with a 2013 case in which his subordinates had allegedly turned an accused into a police approver to help him escape from the law. The cops allegedly took Rs 17 lakh from the accused in drug case. SP Prithipal Singh, who heads the EOW in Patiala and interrogated the SSP, said during Raj Jit’s tenure as SSP Tarn Taran, dismissed DSP Daljit Singh Dhillon and arrested police inspector Inderjit Singh had registered a case against Jagdeep Singh, a lab technician of Kharar Forensic Laboratory. Jagdeep had taken money to tweak the lab reports of drug samples to help the accused in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS) cases.
Jagdeep, along with nine other staffers of Kharar Forensic Lab, had been sentenced to seven years in jail in March 2018, after they were found guilty of altering lab reports to help the drug peddlers. However, after the registration of case against Jagdeep in 2013, the Tarn Taran police had produced him as a witness in the case which was initially registered against him. The matter came to light in 2014, when the state vigilance arrested Jagdeep in another case of modifying lab reports. During his interrogation, he told the sleuths that a similar case had been registered against him by the Tarn Taran police in 2013, but no action could be taken against him as he had paid Rs 17 lakh to inspector Inderjit Singh, the SP said.

After the matter came on record, the economic offence wing of the state police registered a case against Inderjit and his two touts — Pawan Kumar and Ravinder Singh.

The dismissed inspector was arrested by the anti-drug special task force (STF) of Punjab Police with 4kg heroin in Kapurthala in June 2017 and had since been lodged in jail. DSP Dhillon was dismissed from service last Tuesday, following allegations of him pushing women into drugs and sexually exploiting them. He was arrested on Wednesday.

SP Prithipal said an accused in the case cannot be turned into a police approver by cops without the concurrence of district police chief. He said the department was to cross verify the facts for which the SSP was summoned to the Patiala office and interrogated. Later, he was given a detailed questionnaire, seeking information into every aspect of the said case and asked to fill the same and submit it with the department within 10 days.

IG Shive Kumar Verma, who is monitoring the case progress, said they had summoned the senior cop to question him in connection with FIR 1/2015 registered against him on the basis of the statement given by Jagdeep.