SSP fails to comply with HC orders

Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, December 11

Less than a month after the UT SSP was directed to file his affidavit on a petition alleging “large-scale immigration fraud”, the officer has failed to comply with the orders. Taking note of the “non-compliance” of the orders, dated November 13, Justice Mahabir Singh Sindhu has made it clear that the officer will have to be present in the court on the next date of hearing in case of further non-compliance.

Justice Sidhu also accepted a request by counsel for the Chandigarh Administration and other respondents for adjournment for filing the affidavit. As many as 31 “young students” planning to study in Canada had moved the High Court seeking a CBI probe into the alleged fraud after blaming the Chandigarh Police for acting in a “callous manner” and “going soft” on the accused.

Taking up the petition, filed by Sukhpal Kaur and 30 other petitioners through counsel Navkiran Singh, the Bench, on a previous date of hearing, had put the UT Administration, its Director General of Police and other respondents on notice.

Navkiran Singh had submitted on the petitioner’s behalf that strangely the cheating process was going on right under the nose of the Chandigarh Police. It was receiving complaints since October 2017, but woke up from its slumber only after the complaints piled up. An FIR was ultimately registered on May 24 for cheating, criminal breach of trust and other offences under Sections 406, 420 and 120-B of the IPC at the Sector 36 police station on the basis of 65 complaints.

One of the accused, Jyoti Thakur, was taken into custody, but after a month or so was released on bail by a Duty Magistrate on June 26 without “caring for the seriousness of the offence”. The bail order would reveal that the court granting bail treated the matter to be of a civil nature and directed the accused to return a partial amount to the candidates who had not been issued the Quebec Certificate of Acceptance as promised in the contract entered between the parties.

Navkiran Singh had added that the Chandigarh Police had till date not been able to arrest the second accused, Paramjit Singh Hanspa. It was moving “very slow” on his arrest and inaction on its part was raising suspicion in the minds of the petitioners that the police were going slow in the matter and were not holding a fair investigation.

The case

As many as 31 “young students” planning to study in Canada had moved the High Court seeking a CBI probe into the alleged fraud after blaming the Chandigarh Police for acting in a “callous manner” and “going soft” on the accused.