Court charges Punjab Police Inspector with extortion, graft, under NDPS Act

The court of Additional District and Sessions judge Harreet Kaur Kaleka charged Inspector Satwant Singh Sidhu on Wednesday.

The STF has already filed the chargesheet in the case against four other accused identified as Sukhmander Singh, a dismissed Punjab Police Sub-Inspector (SI), Lovepreet Singh, Jyoti and Maninder Singh.

Inspector Satwant Singh Sidhu was charged under sections 342 (wrongful confinement), 384 (extortion), 201 (destruction of evidence) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, Section 59 of the NDPS Act and sections 7 and 13 of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act.

Sukhmander Singh, who was dismissed from service, was charged with criminal conspiracy, house trespass, extortion, destruction of evidence. Sukhmander was arrested in August 2019 after the registration of the FIR.

The FIR in the case was registered by the STF in 2019 after the STF had arrested some drug paddlers. During the course of investigation, it came to light that accused Jyoti had given money to dismissed SI Sukhmander Singh for the release of one Kuldeep Singh while the other two accused Maninder Singh and Lovepreet Singh acted as mediators. Sukhwinder Singh was posted as in-charge of the narcotics cell of the district police at the time of the registration of the FIR.

Later, the STF had also named Inspector Satwant Singh Sidhu in the FIR. At that time, Sidhu was posted as in-charge of the CIA staff of the district police at Kharar.

Satwant Singh Sidhu was booked by Chandigarh Police in January this year in connection with forged promotion case in Punjab. It was alleged in the FIR that Sidhu was involved in the crime along with some other Punjab Police personnel. He is currently on bail.