SHO, 3 journalists caught taking bribe in Noida police station

NOIDA: In the middle of its crackdown on dubious call centres that have gained international notoriety, Noida police made an embarrassing discovery — it found one of the trails leading back to its own ranks.
It led investigators to Manoj Pant, the SHO of Sector 20 police station, who was caught red-handed inside the police station on Wednesday accepting Rs 8 lakh from a call centre owner in exchange for removing the latter’s name from an FIR. With Pant were three local reporters, one of whom works as a stringer with a frontline Hindi news channel. They were arrested too.

The arrests came after a 14-hour operation led by the SSP. An additional SHO was suspended for his suspected involvement, while another person, who the police claim to be close to SHO Pant, is absconding.

According to sources, the events unfolded after Pushpendra Chauhan — the owner of a call centre in Sector 6 that was among call centres raided on November 27-28 last year — lodged a complaint with the SSP claiming extortion threats from some reporters and the Sector 20 SHO.

Chauhan claimed Pant and the three reporters — Sushil Pandit, Raman Thakur and Udit Goyal — had been pressuring him to give them money to remove his name from an FIR lodged against him, manager Anil Verma and his other staff.

SSP Vaibhav Krishna decided to lay a trap after receiving the complaint from Chauhan on January 27. The operation started at 11am on Tuesday with SP (city) Sudha Singh and SP (rural) Vineet Jaiswal heading two teams that comprised two circle officers, four inspectors and eight other officers. “The district administration was informed and it nominated two officials from the fisheries and the weighing and measurement department. They too oversaw the operation,” Krishna said.

Sources said the mobile phones of the police officers involved in the operation were taken away while they were explained about their role in a meeting. A team of the anti-corruption unit was also informed and they assisted in the operation too.

Chauhan, meanwhile, was in touch with Jeetendra (absconding), Thakur and Goyal over phone since Tuesday morning. In the beginning, a deal of Rs 10 lakh was decided on to remove the Chauhan’s name from the FIR. A meeting between him and the reporters was fixed in the Sector 20 area.

In the evening, Chauhan, carrying the cash, met Thakur and Goyal at the pre-decided location in Sector 20 where the duo was allegedly handed a token amount of Rs 2 lakh to facilitate a meeting with SHO Pant. “A little later, Pandit also arrived in a black Mercedes and met Chauhan and the two others to check whether any trap was being laid,” an officer said.

While Pandit and Thakur got into the Mercedes, Chauhan and Goyal entered the former’s Creta. During the journey, Goyal was allegedly carrying a .32 bore factory-made pistol with two live cartridges. It was later recovered from him, police said. While the Mercedes entered Sector 20 police station, the Creta was parked on the road outside the police station until Goyal verified the bag containing Rs 8 lakh of Rs 2,000 denomination.

After counting the money, Goyal signalled to the others inside the police station. He and Chauhan then entered the police station where the SHO and the two other reporters were already present. As the exchange of money was taking place, senior officers led by SP (rural) and circle officer 1 Kaustabh Kumar and the SSP entered the room and arrested the four accused red-handed.

Sources said the accused, including the SHO, tried to resist the team. The SHO in a statement later said he was “being framed.”

The SSP said the Mercedes (DL9C Q0157) was not registered and it was being verified whether it pertains to any criminal activity. The SSP said one of the reporters had a case of forgery lodged against him. The four have been booked under sections 7, 8 and 13 (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, Section 384 (extortion) of IPC and Section 30 of the Arms Act. They’ll be produced before the anti-corruption court in Meerut.