PCS officers go on mass leave in Punjab: What is the corruption case against Narinder Singh Dhaliwal?

Who is Narinder Singh Dhaliwal?

Hailing from Moga, Narinder Singh Dhaliwal is a 2014-batch PCS officer who was posted as secretary, Regional Transport Authority (RTA), Ludhiana, when he was arrested. Dhaliwal, 40, is a postgraduate in Punjabi and was appointed as a PCS officer on February 5, 2014. Before this, he was also posted as the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) in Jagraon.

Why was Dhaliwal arrested?

The Vigilance Bureau arrested Dhaliwal on January 6 for “running an organised criminal racket to collect money as bribes from transporters” in the Ludhiana district. The bureau said a complaint against Dhaliwal was lodged by Satnam Singh Dhawan on the CM’s Anti-Corruption Help Line in November 2022 and it was probed. It said Dhaliwal was found collecting bribes through private persons from transporters on a monthly basis on the pretext of not issuing challans of their vehicles.

The FIR against Dhaliwal was registered on the basis of video clips secretly recorded and submitted to the Vigilance Bureau by complainant Dhawan. In one of the video clips, a Punjab Home Guard (PHG) Bahadar Singh, who was attached with Dhaliwal, is purportedly heard saying he used to collect bribes from transporters and hand over the amount to the officer every month.

The Vigilance Bureau has said that during the probe it found that in December, Bahadar Singh had collected a bribe of Rs 4 lakh from transporters on behalf of Dhaliwal. According to the FIR, while Dhaliwal allegedly kept Rs 1.70 lakh with himself, he gave the remaining amount to Bahadar Singh. The Vigilance Bureau also claimed Bahadar Singh has produced Rs 2.30 lakh to them.

What does the FIR say?

The FIR in the case was registered against seven accused—Dhaliwal, Lucky of Ishar Nagar Ludhiana, Mandeep, and owners of five transport companies namely Sukhi Transport (Gobindgarh), Puri Transport (Khanna), Atal Fauji Transport (Khanna) and Hero Transport (Gobindgarh). It was filed under sections 7, 7-A, and 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the VB police station Ludhiana range.

However, Bahadar Singh has not been named as an accused in the case. Ludhiana Vigilance SSP Ravinderpal Singh Sandhu said: “His role is still under probe but as of now, he is our witness, not an accused. His video was recorded secretly by the complainant Satnam Dhawan, who is an RTI activist, following which he was called for questioning and he confessed to collecting bribes for the officer. He has also produced Rs 2.30 lakh which he was given by Dhaliwal to keep.”

According to the FIR, the complainant Dhawan works as an insurance agent and deals in the sale and purchase of second-hand vehicles. In his statement to the Vigilance Bureau, Dhawan claimed that an inquiry against Dhaliwal was already ongoing at Vigilance Bureau’s Moga office. He said Bahadar Singh confessed to collecting bribes ranging from Rs 3-6 lakh every month and giving it to Dhaliwal.

The FIR also says Dhaliwal used to collect the money from transporters whose vehicles ran illegally in the Ludhiana district. These included overloaded vehicles, tippers which used to enter the city with sand and other construction material, tourist buses which came to Ludhiana late in the night without paying tax, and some transporters whose containers used to ply illegally from the dry port.

So far, the police have arrested Dhaliwal only, while the remaining accused named in the FIR are yet to be arrested.

Why are PCS officers protesting?

The Punjab Civil Services Officers Association said in a statement Dhaliwal was arrested ‘illegally, wrongfully and arbitrarily without following the due procedure on the basis of the statement of a private individual.’

“There is a procedure and vigilance always skips that to harass the officers. The government has to form a high-level committee which should include IAS and PCS officers to investigate this illegal arrest. We will also be submitting a memorandum in this regard to the CM and further action will be decided on January 14,” the association said in the statement.

It has said that Dhaliwal was arrested in a “deceitful manner.” “He was called by the Vigilance to record his statement and when he went there, he was arrested. He had in fact gone to cooperate in the enquiry. PCS officer’s association is always against corruption at any level but a procedure has to be followed,” said the officers.

Rajat Oberoi, President, PCS Officers Association, said not only did the “vigilance arrest Dhaliwal without following any due procedure”, but they also found during their own fact-finding that the complainant Dhawan was himself booked for alleged blackmailing. “The FIR against Dhawan was registered at Sadar Khanna police station on January 18, 2021, for extortion and criminal intimidation,” said Oberoi.

Details from this FIR show Dhawan and one Inderpal Singh were booked based on the complaint of the employees of the Regional Transport Office (RTO), Khanna, who alleged that the men used to blackmail and harass them by introducing themselves as police officers.

Oberoi said this is not the first time that a PCS officer has been arrested “merely on the basis of a video-graphic statement of an individual”.

“Earlier also the vigilance had arrested another officer Tarsem Chand who was posted at RTA, Faridkot and later a probe report by the DIG had also given a clean chit to him. The report had even said that he was deliberately framed by vigilance in connivance with two private transporters but to date, there has been no action against those vigilance cops who had framed him whereas the officer’s image has been tarnished for his entire career. This trend cannot continue and officers cannot be harassed this way,” said Oberoi.

The association has also pointed out it was astonishing that Bahadar Singh has not been named as an accused by the Vigilance Bureau, who according to his own statement, collected bribes and even kept a part of the amount with himself. “How is it possible that of a total of Rs 4 lakh which was allegedly taken as a bribe, the PHG who is junior to PCS officer, got lion’s share of Rs 2.30 lakh and the officer kept 1.70 lakh only,” pointed out a PCS officer from Ludhiana.