Chandigarh, May 3:Failure to pick their passports before fleeing landed the two Assistant Sub-Inspectors in the police net after remaining fugitives for 33 days in the Rs 6.65 crore “missing cash” scandal that rocked Punjab Police and a Jalandhar-based group of Christian priests.
ASIs Joginder Singh and Rajpreet Singh hid in many states and eventually reached Kochi, planning to strike a deal with the priests, who belonged to Kerala and allegedly owned the cash, to return the money and get the complaint withdrawn.A team headed by IG PK Sinha tracked them down with the help of Kerala Police.
Sinha said the duo took away the money thinking it was part of a larger illegal amount and if they siphoned off some, there would not be any complaint. “When the money was recovered during a raid, senior officers told the two to deposit it at the Khanna police headquarters, but the duo hatched a plan midway. They initially thought of taking a few lakhs from Rs 6.65 crore, but later thought of pocketing the whole amount,” the IG said.He said the duo thought it was ill-gotten money. “But, the priests complained the next day, forcing the ASIs to flee. They later thought of leaving the country and tried to get their passports picked from their houses. It was then that our intelligence network caught them.”
The ASIs stayed in Uttarakhand, New Delhi, Jaipur, Meerut and Mumbai.
Sent to five-day police remand
- The SIT led by AIG (Crime) Rakesh Kaushal produced the ASIs and five others in a CBI court in Mohali on Friday
- AIG Kaushal said they had recovered Rs 2.38 crore and sought seven-day remand to recover the remaining amount. “The ASIs have been remanded in five-day police custody, the rest in three-day.”
