The Ferozepur police on Sunday arrested Punjab Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Kamal Sharma’s close aide and Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, Ferozepur, president Jimmy Sandhu, in a case of forgery and graft for dropping a drug case against a couple.
As per information, Jimmy was presented in the court of chief judicial magistrate Ravi Inder Kaur, who sent him to one-day police remand.
“During initial investigation led by superintendent of police (detective), a sum of 3 lakh was recovered from Jimmy, which is part of the money that exchanged hands in the case,” said senior superintendent of police Hardiyal Singh Mann.
On August 5, the police booked Jimmy Sandhu, Gurcharan Singh and Lakhwinder Singh.
Jimmy Sandhu was booked for accepting `10 lakh from Lakhwinder Singh to get drug-smuggling accused Amritpal Singh and his wife Jagdeep Kaur off the hook. The police claimed to have seized 100-gram heroin, two weapons and fake currency from the couple. Out of `10 lakh, `4 lakh was allegedly passed on to DSP Sekhon.
The FIR also says that BJP leader Gurcharan Singh took `3 lakh from a relative of Jagdeep Kaur to pay local BJP chief Katora to see that she got bail. Jimmy Sandhu allegedly took `15 lakh to save the local deputy commissioner (DC) office clerk Manoj Khatter in a case of forging arms licences. Manoj was booked on March 30, and his brother Sonu allegedly paid the money to ensure that the case was cancelled.
A case against BJP leader Gurcharan Singh, Jimmy Sandhu, and agent Lakhwinder Singh was registered under section 420 (cheating and forgery) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections 8 (taking gratification to influence public servant) and 9 (taking gratification for exercise of influence on public servant) of the Prevention of Corruption Act while the role of DSP Sekhon and Katora was being probed.
Lakhwinder was earlier held with `14 Lakh while Gurcharan was yet at large.
Dilbagh Singh and Jugraj Singh, former sarpanches of Aulakh Hall and Fatehgarh Sabaro villages respectively, who are named in the FIR registered against Jimmy, Gurcharan and Lakhwinder, had appeared in the court through their counsels under section 164 (recording of confessions and statements) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
Manoj Abrol and Raju Khatter, mentioned in the FIR for paying `15 lakh to Jimmy to influence the police to drop the fake-arms-licence case against Manoj, also appeared before the CJM. All the four people in a statement recorded 10 days ago have reportedly accepted that they paid bribe as mentioned in the FIR, revealed reports.
“We have asked DSP Balwinder Singh Sekhon and Jugraj Katora to join investigation but they failed to do so. We are further exploring all legal options to get them join probe,” claimed Hardiyal Singh Mann.
Kamal Sharma claims that Lakha and Jimmy were not his aides and that he had no clue about the activities of the others. However Sukhpal Singh Nannu, a former BJP legislator opposed to Sharma, has written to party president Amit Shah alleging that after district police chief Hardayal Singh Mann refused to budge under pressure to delete the names of Sharma’s aides from the FIR, Sharma tried to cover up by sacking them on 3 August, two days before the case was registered.Congress legislator from Ferozepur Parminder Singh Pinki along with Punjab Youth Congress chief Amarpreet Singh Lalli and others had even protested outside the local SSP’s office and demanded that all the accused be arrested and a case made out against state BJP president Kamal Sharma as well.