Punjab Vigilance Bureau arrests senior cop for owning disproportionate assets
Darpan News Desk IANS, 31 May, 2023 12:47 PM
Chandigarh, May 31 (IANS) The Punjab Vigilance Bureau has arrested Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Ashish Kapoor for illegally creating immovable and movable expensive properties beyond his known sources of income in Chandigarh and Mohali.
A corruption case has been registered against him and his wife, Kamal Kapoor, after the allegations of acquiring unaccounted assets were proven in a vigilance probe.
Kapoor was brought from Central Jail Patiala on a production warrant and presented in the Mohali court. The Vigilance Bureau has been granted a three-day police remand for questioning.
A spokesperson for the Vigilance Bureau said an FIR was registered on Tuesday against the police officer and his wife under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code Act in Mohali.
During investigation it was found that between August 1, 2017, and August 31, 2022, the accused had acquired unaccounted expensive immovable and movable assets in his name and his wife name in Chandigarh and Mohali cities, which had a market price much higher than the registered price.
The officer had served in various districts of Punjab and the prison department, besides the Vigilance Bureau.
Earlier, the Vigilance Bureau had arrested Kapoor in October last for taking a bribe of Rs 1 crore through different cheques.
The police had earlier arrested K. Harish and J. Malathy, who were also directors of the company. Five more people are still at large in the multi-crore cheating case carried out by the company in the state.
Two Covid-19-related deaths have also been reported in the same time span. The positivity rate of the city has risen to 13.79 per cent. The number of active cases stands at 806 out of which 452 patients are being treated in home isolation.
Lakhimpur Kheri Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Santosh Gupta, said that one staff member was also found Covid-positive during a contact tracing exercise on Sunday after which the entire campus has been turned into a quarantine centre by the Health department. This is the highest number of new Covid cases reported in a district in a day this year.
During thorough search of the area on Monday, BSF troops recovered six packets, containing 6.27 kg heroin, inside a bag lying in the fields near the village. A motorcycle was also found nearby.
According to the police, a 67-year-old man had filed a complaint with the cyber police station in Shahdara district wherein he alleged that on March 18, he had received a WhatsApp video call from an unknown number in which a girl was performing some obscene act.
The accused -- 19-year-old Rohit Kumar and 26-year-old Kamal -- are residents of Sitapur. During interrogation, Rohit told police that the truck driver Harpinder, 60, originally from Faridkot district, tried to harass him sexually under the influence of alcohol.