As the allegations of phone tapping by the lawmakers has sent the alarm bells ringing in the State, Punjab Police on Friday registered a case against its Inspector Vijay Kumar, accused of tapping Congress’ Samana MLA Rajinder Singh’s phone.
Earlier following the allegations, Vijay Kumar, who was then posted as the Samana CIA staff inspector, was transferred to CIA Nabha.
He has been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. A case has been registered under sections 342 (wrongful confinement), 365 (kidnapping or abduction), 379-B (snatching with hurt), 389 (putting person in fear to commit extortion), and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) in Patiala’s Civil Line police station. The cop is accused of taking Rs 30 lakh bribe.
Even as the Congress MLA had made the accusations, the Patiala Police has all along denied their involvement in any such activity.
The issue was first raised during the Congress’ district grievances redressal committee meeting where four Congress MLAs — Hardyal Singh Kamboj (Rajpura), Madan Lal Jalalpur (Ghanaur), Rajinder Singh (Samana) and Nirmal Singh (Shutrana) — had raised questions over the working of district police.
Patiala Senior Superintendent of Police had denied conducting any phone tapping of any if the elected representative. “The cop concerned had only recorded call of the MLA’s personal assistant on some occasion and the recording was done by default,” he had stated.
The police had also maintained that phone tapping was a major things and involved cumbersome formalities which could not be done without approval from the Home Department.