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Deepkamal Kaur & Gurminder Singh Grewal
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar/Khanna, April 17
In the case of misappropriation of Rs 6.65 crore during a raid by the Khanna police on the house Father Anthony Maddasery in Jalandhar on March 29, a team of the Samrala police station have arrested police informer Surinder Singh.
He along with two ASIs of Patiala, booked in the case, had been on the run. Even after five days of the registration of the case, both ASIs are still at large and no recovery of cash has been made so far. The DIG, Ludhiana Range, RS Khatra confirmed the arrest of Surinder Singh last night.
The Khanna police handed him over to the Special Investigation Team, led by IG, Crime, Punjab, Praveen Sinha. He was today produced in the court of Duty Magistrate Jessica Sood in Mohali. The police have got a remand of the accused for six days till April 23.
Even as the police had issued a look out notice against the three, Surinder Singh has been shown to have been nabbed by a team of the Samrala police during a routine naka laid near Dhilwan village on the Samrala-Khanna road. Already in dock for showing wrong location of the March 29 raid, the Khanna police this time claim, “During a naka we stopped a person, who was on foot, around 7.30 pm near bus stand of Dhilwan yesterday and took him for questioning. He was identified as Surinder Singh of Naushera Khurd of Pathankot, wanted in the same cash misappropriation case.” No recovery of any vehicle from him has been shown in the incident.
The SHO, Sukhbir Singh, confirmed the incident. He said after the arrest of Surinder Singh, senior officials of the Khanna police were informed. Later around 2 am today, he was handed over to the SIT in Mohali.
Father Anthony Madassery’s lawyer Mandeep Sachdev has said, “More than the arrests, we are concerned about the quick recovery of the cash. In our complaint, we had sought registration of ac ase under Sections 452, 382, 398, 347, 392 and 409 of the IPC, besides Prevention of Corruption Act. Since the police have not imposed all relevant sections, we will move the court for the same.”
As 15 policemen had conducted raid on the house of the priest in Partappura on March 29, the two ASIs in civvies and Surinder Singh had come in a Verna car. They had reportedly recovered the cash from the team of South Indian Bank which was engaged in counting cash on the first floor of the priest house. The trio were allegedly the last to move out after the raid and they followed the Moga-Jagraon route to Khanna. The other police party had used the NH-1 route.
While the other members of the team reached the CIA Staff office at Khanna at about 8 pm, the two ASIs and Surinder Singh reached about half an hour later in their Verna car. They reportedly did not show any recovery of cash that they took from the bank staff and are suspected to have hidden the amount somewhere en route.
The amount of money siphoned off by the trio is yet to be quantified by the new SIT formed on the orders of the DGP. As of date, it is estimated to be nearly 5.75 crore on the basis of inputs that the team of IG Sinha gathered from the priest, Father Anthony Madassery, and Income Tax Department.
Booked on April 12
An FIR was registered against Surinder Singh, ASI Joginder Singh, a resident of Urban Estate-I, and ASI Rajpreet Singh, a resident of New Mahindra Colony in Patiala, at the State Crime Police Station, Mohali, on April 12. The nine-page FIR, based on the complaint of Father Anthony Madassery, had been lodged against the trio under Sections 406 and 34 of the IPC and Section 13(1)(a), read with 13(2), of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
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