Punjab Police Special Task Force today arrested Inspector Inderjit Singh for providing protection to smugglers of narcotics and organizing smuggling and trafficking of narcotics through his associates.Disclosing this here today STF Chief Mr Harpreet Singh Sidhu ADGP informed that after registration of case against the accused Inspector, joint raids were conducted by various STF teams led by Mr. Mukhwinder Singh AIG/STF, Jalandhar, Mr. Snehdeep Sharma, AIG/STF Ludhiana and Mr. Harpreet Singh AIG/STF Rupnagar. Based on the investigations a case FIR No. 1 dated 12.06.2017 was registered by ADG STF under section 59 (2) (b) of the NDPS Act, 1985, and u/s 218, 466, 471, 120-B IPC at STF Police Station SAS Nagar against Inspector Inderjit Singh (No.108/Amritsar) and DSP Jaswant Singh.He revealed that during search operations, live cartridges of various calibre, one illegal 9 mm pistol made in Italy, cash to the tune of Rs. 16.50 lakh and 3550 GB pounds were recovered from his residences. “On initial interrogation and his disclosure statement, further recovery of 4 Kg heroin and 3 Kg smack was made from his second residence at Government quarter No. 3, Phagwara. Based on these recoveries a FIR u/s 22/61/85 of the NDPS Act, 1985 and 25/54/59 of Arms Act have been added to the FIR”, he added.
Giving more details Mr Sidhu said reliable source have provided information to the STF that Insp. Inderjit Singh, who was under transfer to Ferozepur Range, had earlier worked in Tarntaran for a long period and was involved in nefarious activities with some narcotics smugglers. He added that during the years 2013 and 2014 he had played a big role in providing protection to smugglers operating in his jurisdiction and he himself was organizing smuggling and trafficking of narcotics through various associates.STF chief further said the accused has made recoveries of narcotics in the past but with the motive of obtaining illegal gratification from those in his custody on the promise of helping them in these cases and later getting some of them acquitted thereby causing loss to the State.He further added that the STF was already analyzing the cases acquitted of commercial quantity narcotics recovered during the period of last five years. On receipt of information from field units, it was found that in case FIR No.155/2013, FIR No. 100/2013 and FIR No.85/2013 of district Tarntaran acquittal by the trial courts were on grounds that Inspector Inderjit Singh, who held the substantive rank of Head Constable at the time of registration of cases and subsequent investigation was not competent to investigate the case as per the provisions/rules of the NDPS Act, 1985.
Giving details Mr Sidhu said the accused Inspector have deliberately committed glaring discrepancies during investigation of above said cases which appeared to an attempt to favour the accused. During investigations it has come to light that the shortcomings were in a similar and observable pattern in many cases. “These cases were referred to IGP/Border Zone and SSP/Tarntaran who in their reports ascertained these facts and recommended criminal action against the accused Inspector Inderjit Singh and DSP Jaswant Singh under section 59(2) of the NDPS Act, 1985.He informed that already a case had already been registered against Inspector Inderjit Singh by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau under section 7, 8, 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 which is currently under investigation.Mr Sidhu added that the State government was committed to foil nefarious designs of smugglers and STF was on the right track to curb the smuggling. He added that no person would be spared if found guilty after investigation. He said that the investigation of this case was entrusted to Mr. Mukhwinder Singh AIG/STF, Jalandhar under the supervision of Mr Pramod Ban IGP/STF Jalandhar Zone. He added that the matter was under investigation with the objective of unearthing the entire network of smugglers.