new delhi, oct 14
Four days after being suspended for allegedly looting nearly Rs .5 crore out of a reported ?3 crore seized during an alleged hawala transaction, a lady Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) was arrested on Tuesday.
The action came after an FIR was registered against her and nine other suspended police personnel from Seoni district of Madhya Pradesh, following directives from Chief Minister Dr. Mohan Yadav.
According to senior police officers, DSP Pooja Pandey, who was posted as the Sub-Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP) in Seoni, was taken into custody. Officials said the FIR was registered against the 10 police personnel, including the SDOP, under sections 310(2) (dacoity), 126(2) (wrongful restraint), 140(3) (kidnapping/abduction), and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
The case was initiated following a complaint by the driver and the businessman involved in the money transfer. Inspector General of Police (Jabalpur Range) Pramod Verma had ordered a probe into the matter, after which Director General of Police (DGP) Kailash Makwana suspended SDOP Pooja Pandey based on the preliminary report.
Seoni Superintendent of Police (SP) Sunil Kumar Mehta said that during a checking operation on the night of October 8, Bandol Police Station in-charge Sub-Inspector Arpit Bhairam and personnel from the SDOP’s office intercepted a car in Siladehi forest area. The police team reportedly found a large sum of cash being transported from Katni in Madhya Pradesh to Jalna in Maharashtra. The money was being carried by the car’s driver, Sohan Parmar. However, it was later alleged that instead of seizing the cash officially, the police personnel beat up the driver, chased him away, and tried to misappropriate the money. They were also accused of failing to inform their senior officers about the seizure.
The next morning, the businessman who had sent the money reached Kotwali Police Station and lodged a complaint with the IG. He alleged that the total amount was Rs 2.96 crore, but the police neither recorded the seizure initially nor disclosed the correct amount later, mentioning only Rs 1.5 crore in official records.
