Panipat, March 15
The Haryana Police, which was put on the back foot due to the alleged involvement of members of its special tack force (STF) in extortion cases, has arrested seven cops in a late-night development here today. An ASP rank officer, too, has been detained for his alleged involvement.

The district police had rounded up eight cops, including ASP Ashok Sheoran, ASI Vijay Pal, head constable (HC) Jagbir, HC Raj Kapoor, HC Iswar Singh along with constables Vinod Kumar, Dharam Singh and Mahinder Singh, late last night.

After hours of questioning, the police booked ASI Vijay Pal, head constable (HC) Jagbir, HC Raj Kapoor, HC Iswar Singh and the rest, save the ASP, who was still kept in custody and was being quizzed further till the filing of this report.

The accused (including the ASP) were accused of extorting Rs 6 lakh from a local share broker and making an unsuccessful attempt to extort another Rs 10 lakh from a local jeweller on March 10. They were caught on CCTV camera at the jewellery shop, which finally led to their tracing down. Sources privy to investigations said ASP Ashok Sheoran initially denied his involvement in the crime. Following this, the district police got the mobile phone details of all eight accused. This ascertained beyond doubt that he along with the other accused were present at the crime locations on March 10.

The sources said after the new evidence was produced before the ASP, he admitted to had be in Panipat on the eventful day, but denied having met the share broker or the jeweller.

DGP Ranjiv Dalal is handling the investigations.

The STF was constituted in 2007 and it comprises of 20 policemen. The main purpose of the STF was to deal with cases of terrorism, Naxalism and other serious crime. Police personnel from Rohtak, Hisar and other police ranges were included in this special force. Following the revelations, the senior police authorities had ordered the confiscation of the service revolvers and vehicles of the accused cops as these were used in the crimes. The police has not been able to make any recoveries.