In a setback to Punjab Police, a local Tarn Taran court on Thursday junked the police's plea for remand and sent arrested Faridkot Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Lakhvir Singh, to judicial custody. Judicial experts said that Thursday's Patti court's decision was one of the extremely rare instances of custody of a freshly arrested accused not being handed over to the police for interrogation. The police had sought five days of remand of Lakhvir Singh. Punjab's new DGP, Gaurav Yadav, had on Wednesday announced a war on corruption within the force by announcing the arrest of the DSP by the Tarn Taran police for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 10 lakh from a drugs supplier. The DGP had then warned of not sparing anyone involved in graft. The police told the court that it wants to question the DSP to find out if more police officers were involved in the nexus. However, Judge Gaurav Gupta, didn’t find merit in the police's plea and decided to send Lakhvir Singh to jail. A case against the DSP has been filed under sections 7, 7-A, and 8 (1) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, sections 213, 214, and 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), with sections 29 and 59 of the NDPS Act having been added in the FIR in the case filed at Bhikiwind police station.
