‘Mohali cop was driving stolen Gypsy with fake number’

While the Gypsy was originally registered in Mohali with number PB-65-D-8609 before it was reported stolen from outside the flat of Inspector Gurdev Singh Sanauri in Pancham Society,Sector 68,Mohali,on August 15,2008,it was found abandoned with fake Ropar number PB-12-G-9981 from Sector 20,Chandigarh,few days back.

Following preliminary investigations,the police claimed that the Head Constable had bought the stolen vehicle at throwaway price from the thieves while the accused cop claimed innocence and denied the allegations of either stealing,purchasing,using or abandoning the police vehicle.

Investigations revealed that lured by the throwaway price,the cop bought the stolen Gypsy without bothering to verify the antecedents of the sellers or even checking the authenticity of the vehicle. “Ever since he possessed the stolen vehicle,he used to drive it with fake number and he being a cop,nobody ever stopped or checked the vehicle,” said the investigation officials.

After the expiry of his one-day police,the cop was produced before the court of Judicial Magistrate (Class I) Amanpreet Singh here this evening.

However,the court turned down the prosecution’s plea of seeking extension in police remand of the accused and ordered to send the cop to judicial remand till July 30.

While the prosecution sought further custody of the cop on the grounds of recovering the documents of the vehicle and ascertaining the persons from whom he had bought the vehicle,the defence counsel strongly opposed the prosecution’s plea and averred that since nothing more was to recovered from the accused,no purpose would be solved in keeping him in police custody anymore.

Interacting with media outside the courtroom,the accused cop alleged that he was being implicated under a deep-rooted conspiracy and was even forced to sign the blank papers and confess to the crime. “I never used the said vehicle and always traveled by bus,” claimed he,while feigning ignorance that why he was “falsely implicated”.

However,the senior police officials categorically refuted Singh’s allegations and accused him of making “false” statements to escape from the punishment. “There was no reason to book him falsely and instead he was arrested after establishing his role in the crime,” claimed the officials.

Before being sent to Police Lines recently,Singh had served as MHC (Munshi Head Clerk) at Zirakpur police station and had remained attached with some district police officials as Reader. He was booked under Section 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) of the IPC.