Jalandhar, August 1
While the Punjab Police is still trying to come out of the shock caused by the recent arrests of two of its senior police officers, Randhir Singh Uppal, SP (Detective) Hoshiarpur, was arrested from his office by the officials of the state Vigilance Bureau while, he was allegedly in the process of accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 from a Nangal resident Roopdaman Ohri.
Uppal is the third senior Punjab Police official to be arrested in a bribery case, after the recent arrests of DSP Raka Ghirra and AIG Parmdip Singh in similar cases by the CBI. These arrests have created ripples across the police top brass in the state. Ohri has alleged that Uppal had demanded a bribe of Rs 2 lakh for taking action against his Hoshiarpur-based tenant who had sold off his ancestral shop in the Kotwali Bazaar on the basis of fake documents.
Meanwhile, a Vigilance Bureau team led by the Jalandhar Vigilance Bureau SSP, Surjit Singh Grewal, and Hoshiarpur Vigilance Bureau DSP, Baldev Singh, has sealed the official residence of Uppal.The SSP has also despatched another special team to raid the Amritsar-based residence of Uppal. “We expect to find more incriminating evidence or articles from his house,” said a Vigilance Bureau official. Uppal who, offered no resistance at the time of his arrest from his office around 5 pm has been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act. “He was caught red-handed while taking a bribe of Rs 50,000 from the complainant,” said Grewal.
Uppal was posted as the SP (D) at Hoshiarpur about an year ago. He was to be shifted to Department of Jails but was successful in stalling his transfer midway.
Ohri has alleged that he had already paid Rs 10,000 as advance ‘booking money’ to the Reader of the SP and he was summoned by the SP today to pay the next instalment of Rs 50,000. As per the ‘settlement’, the rest of the amount was to be given after ‘finishing of the job.’
IG Vigilance Bureau Kuldip Singh said the accused would be produced in the court tomorrow. He said another Rs 1 lakh was recovered from his office drawer for which Uppal failed to give an explanation. “Though, Ohri is the first complainant against Uppal, we will investigate the case thoroughly. The recovery of the unaccounted sum of Rs 1 lakh will also be subjected to thorough scrutiny,” said Kuldip Singh.
Amritsar: The Vigilance sleuths raided the house of arrested SP (D) Randhir Singh Uppal at Meeran Kot on the Amritsar-Ajnala road this evening and recovered two AK-47 rifles and a revolver.
No comments:
Post a Comment