Punjab Vigilance Bureau on Thursday arrested Punjab Police’s Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Ashish Kapoor, a Punjab Police Services (PPS) officer — currently posted as Commandant, 4th IRB, Pathankot, for taking a bribe of Rs one crore through different cheques. In this case, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Intelligence, Pawan Kumar and Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Harjinder Singh have also been nominated as accused.
Spokesperson said that the Bureau has registered a case under sections 7, 7-A Prevention of Corruption Act and 420, 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and further investigation in the matter is under progress.
Sharing more details, the spokesperson said that during posting as Superintendent Jail at Central Jail, Amritsar, in 2016, Kapoor had got acquainted with a lady, named Poonam Rajan, of Sector 30, Kurukshetra, Haryana, who was under judicial remand in the Jail in some case.
“When Poonam Rajan, along with her mother Prem Lata, brother Kuldeep Singh, and sister-in-law Preeti, was in police remand in a case registered under section 420/120-B of IPC at police station Zirakpur, Ashish Kapoor went to the police station and fraudulently convinced Poonam Rajan's mother Prem Lata to help her getting bail and acquittal from the court,” said the spokesperson.
Adding further, the spokesperson revealed that after this, Ashish Kapoor, in connivance with the then SHO of Zirakpur police station Pawan Kumar and ASI Harjinder Singh got Preeti, sister-in-law of Poonam Rajan, declared innocent in the case. In lieu of that favour, Ashish Kapoor obtained signatures of Prem Lata on different cheques amounting to Rs one crore and deposited them under the names of his known ones and got them encashed through ASI Harjinder Singh, added the spokesperson.
“By doing so, the accused Ashish Kapoor, Pawan Kumar and Harjinder Singh have committed offences under Prevention of Corruption Act and 420, 120-B of IPC and have been nominated as accused in the present case,” added the spokesperson.