District Court grants bail to inspector arrested for issuing fake promotion, transfer letters

The counsel for applicant, Advocate Sajjal Sharma, contended that Inspector Satwant Singh Sidhu, was neither a beneficiary of the orders nor had he forged any such orders from the office of the then DGP of Punjab as he never remained posted in that office.

After hearing the matter, The Court of Additional District and Sessions Judge, Narender said, “…in the light of the statement of the Public Prosecutor, the applicant was not the beneficiary of the alleged orders of promotion and appointments, thus keeping him in custody for any longer period will certainly not serve any purpose…”

The Court thus granted bail to Sidhu, on furnishing bail bonds in the sum of Rs 1 lakh.

As per the case, the orders about the promotion of 11 police personnel, purportedly signed by former DGP Siddharth Chattopadhyay, was released on January 8, a day before his transfer. The list released on January 8 included the names of 11 police personnel.

The order said that Narinder Singh, Harwinder Singh, Jagnandan Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Kuldeep Singh, and Baljinder Singh had been allegedly promoted to the rank of Sub-Inspectors (SIs), head constable Mani Katoch, and senior constable Barinder Singh were promoted to the rank of Assistant of Sub-Inspector (ASI). Head constables Amritpal Singh, Mandeep Singh, Raj Kumar were also promoted to the rank of ASIs. The written orders mentioned that the 11 police personnel were promoted under 13.21 Punjab Police Rule, 1934, in recognition of outstanding services rendered by them.

A case was registered on the complaint of PPS Vibhor Kumar, DGP staff officer, against unknown persons. In his complaint, Vibhor Kumar, reported that he had come across four orders which were found to be forged. On verification, he found that some police officers of the Punjab Police had been promoted/recruited on fake orders under forged signatures of the then DGP.

Later, a case was lodged at Police Station 3, Chandigarh.