Acting swiftly in the Jalandhar priest’s missing money case, the special investigation team of the Punjab Police, in coordinated operations on Thursday, successfully recovered Rs. 2. 38 crores in the wake of the arrest of five persons from Sangrur and Patiala involved in siphoning off the funds.Disclosing this here today, a spokesperson of the Punjab Police said the money was recovered from the accused on the basis of revelations made by two ASIs, who were arrested on Tuesday during their interrogation by Punjab Police, in Kochi.Earlier in the day, a team of Punjab Police took over the custody of the two ASIs - Joginder Singh and Rajpreet Singh, from the Kerala Police at Kochi. Both were presented before CJM Kochi who gave transit remand and the accused were being brought back to Punjab today.According to DGP Punjab Police, Dinkar Gupta, who immediately tweeted information about the recovery, further investigations were in progress and all efforts were being made to unravel the entire chain of events and recover the full amount alleged to have been embezzled.Divulging further, the spokesperson said that in operations carried out by state police teams of different districts in Punjab, Rs 1 Crore was recovered from Nirmal Singh s/o Lt. Kehar Singh r/o village Raipur PS Jorian Distt. Mansa, who is yet to be arrested.
The recovery was made in the presence of some respectable villagers. In the seizures made by Patiala police, while Rs 40 Lakhs were recovered from Surinderpal @ Chiri s/o Ram Swarup r/o ward no. 3, Patran and Rs 20 Lakhs from Mohd. Shakeel s/o Mohd. Jameel, r/o H. no. 1239 Balbeer Khan Colony Patiala, in addition to Rs 30 Lakhs recovered from HC Amrik Singh no. 2007/Patiala s/o Joginder Singh R/O Danewal PS Jhuner Distt. Mansa. In the case of arrests made by Sangrur Police, Rs 30 Lakhs was confiscated from Devinder Kumar @ Kala s/o Hem Raj r/o Ward no.2, near Grid Colony, Moonak, PS Moonak, Distt Sangrur, besides recovery of Rs 18 Lakhs from Sanjeev Kumar s/o Karnail Singh r/o Rampur Gujjran, PS Moonak, Distt. Sangrur. The spokesperson further said that one of the accused, Surinderpal Sharma, was released on bail u/s 437 CrPC, as he was on bed due to a recent cardiac surgery. Bail bonds were furnished by him, cash was recovered and seized and taken into possession by the Police. Efforts are being made to arrest Nirmal Singh at the earliest.Earlier, the Punjab Police had tracked down the two absconding ASIs, Joginder Singh and Rajpreet Singh, to a private hotel in Kochi, where they were arrested by the local police on Tuesday.