Punjab Police ex-AIG in 3-day custody after role in second false drug case surfaces
Accused Rachhpal Singh allegedly misused his rank and power to falsely implicate youngsters in drug cases in 2017 and 2019.
The Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) has taken a retired assistant inspector general of police (AIG) Rachhpal Singh into its custody for three days after he was arrested for framing a youth in a 2019 drug case.
This is the second such case in which accused Rachhpal Singh allegedly misused his rank and power as earlier, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had filed a chargesheet against him in a 2017 drug case for fraudulently arresting four people in Amritsar.
ANTF AIG Jalandhar range Jagjit Singh Saroya said it is a separate case in which the special task force (STF) had arrested Amarinderpal Singh of Marhi Tanda village in Gurdaspur district and claimed to have recovered 200g of heroin.
“The FIR related to it was registered on February 11, 2019, at Amritsar’s civil lines police station under the NDPS Act on the complaint of then inspector Parveen Kumar,” the investigation officer said.
According to the FIR, Amarinderpal was picked up by the team of STF border range from Amritsar district complex on the suspicion of supplying drugs.
Later, his family approached senior police officials, terming the arrest and recovery of drugs fabricated.
A special investigation team was constituted to probe the matter.
“During investigation, it was found that Rachhpal Singh along with his team had fabricated evidence to frame Amarinderpal. We have arrested inspector Amar Pratap Singh, who was then STF investigation officer and Praveen Kumar, a retired inspector. The SIT had apprehended Dalvir Singh of Saidpur village and Dalbir Singh of Sathiala village, who had personal enmity with Amarinderpal and his family, and booked him in the false case to settle scores,” Saroya said.
Rachhpal has worked closely in the STF, now known as ANTF, and was considered close to special DGP Harpreet Sidhu, who has recently returned to Punjab cadre from central deputation in the CRPF. Sidhu was made head of the STF against drugs in 2017 by the then Capt Amarinder Singh-led Congress government.
CBI filed chargesheet in 2017 case
The CBI filed a chargesheet against 10 policemen, including Rachhpal Singh, while maintaining that the accused had fabricated evidence to frame Balwinder Singh of Bhura Karimpura village in Tarn Taran district.
Among those chargesheeted were inspector Sukhvinder Singh, sub inspectors Prabhjit Singh and Balwinder Singh, assistant sub inspectors Kulwinder Singh, Surjit Singh, Kulwant Singh, and Beant Singh, and head constables Kulwant Singh and Hira Singh. They were charged under Sections 342 (wrongful confinement), 192 (fabricating evidence), 195 (false evidence to secure conviction), 211 (false charges), 218 (fabricating of record by public servant), 471 (using a forged document as genuine) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and also relevant sections under the NDPS Act.
The petitioner had moved the Punjab and Haryana high court claiming that the police picked him up from a hospital in 2017 and falsely accused him of smuggling heroin from Pakistan.
In November 2019, the court directed the then DGP (Bureau of Investigation) Pramod Ban to conduct an inquiry, which examined call data, CCTV footage, and location details and found discrepancies in the STF operation to arrest Balwinder Singh.
In January 2021, the court handed over the probe to the CBI, which found that a kilogram of heroin had actually been seized from Gurjant Singh, but was falsely shown as seized from Balwinder. It was found that Gurjant was allegedly released, while Balwinder was framed using fabricated evidence.
