ED again issues summons to woman officer for producing evidence in alleged Rs 100 crore cyber fraud case

On January 9 last year, when posted as the in-charge of district Cyber Cell, Kaur reportedly busted a fake call centre which was being operated from a house in Sector 108. An FIR under the relevant sections of the Information Technology Act and Indian Penal Code (IPC) was lodged against the alleged call centre owner Varinder Raj Kapooria, Sanket, Sonu, Rajat Kapoor, Nikhil, and Kapil.

An SIT was also formed by then Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Mohali Sandeep Garg to probe the case.

Later, the inspector wrote a letter to Punjab DGP on August 28 alleging the role of influential people, including her senior officers in the scam and that the investigation was to be transferred out of Mohali district. The letter alleged that a senior officer of the district police was threatening her and asked her to stay away from the investigation. She demanded the investigation should either be handed over to the State Cyber Cell or the Bureau of Investigation (BoI).

Following the letter, in September last year, the DGP formed a SIT headed by ADGP V Neerja, with Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dhanpreet Kaur and Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Deepak Pareek as its members.

The Mohali district court in April last year also ordered registration of an FIR against Kaur after a petitioner Palak Dev filed an application under Section 156(3) of the Criminal Procedure Court (CrPC) alleging that the officer had demanded a bribe of Rs 25 lakh from them. However, the district court’s orders were stayed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.