ED arrests sacked Punjab cop Inderjit Singh in money-laundering case
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested dismissed Punjab Police Inspector Inderjit Singh under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
Though the arrest was made on October 24, ED officials shared the details of the same on Wednesday. The Special PMLA Court at Mohali had on the same day granted the custody of Inderjit Singh to ED and sent the sacked cop to 14-day judicial custody.
The ED had initiated investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by the Punjab Police under various Sections of the NDPS Act, Prevention of Corruption Act, and Arms Act, 1959, against the cop, who remained posted in the CIA in Jalandhar and Kapurthala for a long time. Singh was arrested by the STF in June 2017 with the recovery of 4 kg heroin and an AK-47 assault gun.
The ED investigations have so far revealed that Singh was engaged in nefarious activities with narcotics smugglers by providing them protection. He would conduct searches, seize drugs from the smugglers and arrest them under the NDPS Act. However, after the arrests, Singh would solicit bribes from the smugglers in exchange for facilitating their bail. Additionally, he used threats and coercion to extort money from the families of these smugglers.
Singh had arrested smuggler Gurjit Singh (now deceased) and seized 13 kg heroin, cash of Rs 60 lakh and 19-20 tolas gold from him. However, out of this, he had shown recovery of Rs 36 lakh only and kept the remaining Rs 24 lakh and gold with himself.
Subsequently, Singh intimidated the family of Gurjit Singh and allegedly extorted a total of Rs 39 lakh from them. Further, as per the findings, Singh also pressurised Gurjit to transfer their house in his name for not framing his wife and father in the drug case. Later, he got the ownership of House No. 4, Max Colony, Chheharta, Amritsar, transferred in the name of his associate. The ED has already attached the house and a fixed deposit of Rs 32.42 lakh in this case.
Singh was reportedly also found in possession of 3 kg smack, Rs 16.5 lakh in cash, 3,550 pounds, a Toyota Innova car and a Mahindra Scorpio car during searches conducted by the STF, Punjab Police.
