Missing Rs 6.6 crore: SIT investigations point at ‘gang’ working within the police force

PATIALA: The ongoing investigations into Rs 6.66 crore cash gone missing have revealed that the cops had evolved into an ‘organised gang’ within the police force, which had started targeting moneyed individuals.

Sources in the state police department said the investigations have revealed after returning from the raid at house of Father Anthony in Jalandhar on March 29, the cops had rewarded informer Surinder Singh (now in custody of Mohali police) with a sum of Rs 2 lakh. Surinder Singh has reportedly told his interrogators that after returning from the Jalandhar raid, he was given a cash reward of Rs 2 lakh in presence of the senior police officials including a DSP working with the state vigilance department. This reward had not been approved by the government but had been released by the Khanna cops from their own pockets.

Surinder had been arrested after the SIT got a case registered against him and the absconding ASIs Joginder Singh and Rajpreet Singh. The police investigators have also gathered inputs regarding the working of the cops who had carried out the raid. Sources said Surinder has told the police that ahead of the Jalandhar raid, a senior official of the Khanna police had created a WhatsApp group in which Surinder was also a member along with the team that was to carry out the raid.

He said fine details of the operations were shared in the group from time to time including the locations, travel routes, number of cops who were to participate in the raid, details like how many cops will be in police uniform and how many will go in civil dress and how the members of the raiding team will travel.

CCTV recording from the petrol station where the cars met while returning from Jalandhar goes missing

According to the sources, during the investigations it has come to light that while returning from Jalandhar, the cars used in the raid had halted at Khalsa Filling station on Khanna Ludhiana road where these vehicles stayed for a while. However, when the SIT tried to get the CCTV footage from the petrol station, they were told that the DVR had crashed and the event when these cars reached the station could not be recorded. Sources said the SIT has now asked the owner of the filling station to appear before the investigating officer at Chandigarh and explain as to how the DVR crashed exactly at the time when the cars halted there.

Meanwhile owner of the car used in crime files three-page complaint with Patiala Police

Rishi Goyal, a Patiala based property dealer, whose Verna car was used to ferry Rs 6.66 crore that had gone missing has filed a three-page complaint with the Patiala police alleging that he had been kidnapped, kept in illegal confinement at CIA Khanna and then asked to pay the cops Rs 5 lakh under the threat of implication in false NDPS case.

In his complaint given to the Patiala IG AS Rai, Rishi Goyal said it was ASI Joginder Singh and Rajpreet Singh who had kidnapped him while he was coming back from Delhi along with one of his associates on March 26. He said after being picked up from near Rajpura on false suspicion of carrying cash, he was brought to Patiala and then he was taken to Khanna, where he was kept at the CIA police station overnight and next day he was taken to meet two of his acquaintances at Jalandhar. He has claimed that after returning from Jalandhar to Khanna he was allowed to leave, but his Verna car was illegally impounded by Joginder and Rajpreet, who used it to ferry the Rs 6.66 crore cash on March 29. In between, the two ASIs met him at a cafeteria in Patiala and demanded Rs 10 lakh threatening to implicate him in a false NDPS case. He said after he pleaded, the matter was settled at Rs 5 lakh. However, no cash was paid.

Rishi Goyal said the cops collected details of his properties at Patiala and at Khanna from one of his former drivers, who was accompanying ASI Rajpreet when they went to Jalandhar and it appeared that they were trying to target moneyed people in an attempt to extort money by whatever means they could.

Meanwhile, Patiala SSP MS Sidhu, who is also a member of the SIT, said on the basis of the inputs received, the Patiala police had impounded the Verna car and informed AIG crime who is investigating the matter.

Police informer Babbu 12 Bore settles his case with Capt Amarinder Singh

Following the media reports highlighting that the police informer Harjinder alias Babbu 12 bore, who had been working with the Khanna police helping them catch drug peddlers and had also accompanied Khanna SSP Dhruv Dahiya to Bathinda during a raid, was actually a proclaimed offender since 2017, Babbu on Saturday approached some of the scribes and produced a court order dated April 20 stating that the complainant in the cheque bounce case, Capt Amarinder Singh, a resident of Masitan village near Dubwali in Sirsa district of Haryana has withdrawn his complaint and that he was no longer a PO. Babbu said he had settled the matter with Capt Amarinder Singh following which he had filed an affidavit in the court of JMIC Patiala to withdraw his complaint.