Taint on khaki: 50% CBI graft cases in Chandigarh against policemen
Out of a total of 57 cases pending, 28 involve UT policemen, three of whom were convicted in the past one year.
Corruption is so deeply entrenched in the police force that the arrest of three Chandigarh Police personnel within a week last month following Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probes does not come as a big surprise.
The central crime-fighting agency in January nabbed a sub-inspector, a station house officer (SHO) and a constable for taking bribes.
Transcripts of conversations recorded between the accused and their victims in many of these cases also highlight a bigger nexus between lower-rung officials and their seniors in illegally collecting money.
CBI data reveals that nearly 50% of the cases pending or disposed of before the special CBI court here are those involving UT police personnel. Out of a total of 57 cases pending, 28 involve UT policemen, three of whom were convicted in the past one year.
Four trap cases a year since 2010
On an average, four trap cases against UT police personnel have reached the court every year since 2010; with just three acquittals in two separate cases and convictions in four. The rest are either at trial stage or awaiting further orders.
Recent incidents
On January 28, the court arrested Mauli Jagran SHO inspector Baljeet Singh and constable Surinder Rathi for taking a bribe of ₹55,000.
CBI had caught the constable red-handed when he was accepting ₹45,000 from a man allegedly on behalf of the SHO for freeing some suspects detained for drug smuggling. Baljeet had also been trapped earlier by the CBI with a constable for bribery in 2005 when he was posted as a sub-inspector at the Mauli Jagran police post. Suspended by the Chandigarh Police during the trial, he was later acquitted.
SI Rajbir Singh of the Sector 31 police station, who had allegedly asked for a bribe from a meat shop employee and a few others after threatening to implicate them in a theft case, surrendered before the district courts on January 9. He had fled from a CBI team attempting to trap him as he attempted to collect a ₹10,000 bribe from the man who complained against him to the CBI, almost running over one of the investigators.
“Police officials know the ins and outs of court proceedings since they hear court hearings and understand how loopholes can be exploited and how witnesses can turn hostile. That’s how they can defend themselves,” a CBI official said, on condition of anonymity as he’s not authorised to speak to the media.
Taint on khaki
Analysis of data gathered from CBI officials regarding the pendency of cases before the special CBI court reveals that most of these cases are connected to police officials, especially those from Chandigarh Police, followed by Punjab.
Among these are the ₹40-lakh graft case against former EOW deputy superintendent of police (DSP) RC Meena arrested in 2015. The average amount sought in alleged cases of bribe is ₹5,000.
