Accused in sex scam & facing graft charges,cop made DIG

Following his posting as SP (Headquarters) in Moga,he was arrested by the CBI in February 2008 for his alleged role in the Moga sex scam,along with the then SP Moga Devinder Singh Garcha,DSP Raman Kumar and SHO Amarjit Singh. As per the CBI chargesheet,Sandhu had been held on charges of extortion and the Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly using call girls to lure victims,slapping false rape cases on them and then extorting huge bribes from their families to cancel the cases. He is on bail in the case,which is pending before a special CBI court in Patiala.

In 2011,while serving as an AIG (assistant inspector general of police) in the internal vigilance department,Sandhu was allegedly caught red-handed,by the CBI,while accepting a Rs 50,000 bribe. A trap had been laid after former Shiv Sena youth wing president Nishant Sharma lodged a complaint with the premier investigating agency accusing Sandhu of demanding a Rs 3 lakh bribe to favour him in an inquiry. A case under the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered against the PPS officer,which is still pending.

That,however,was not Sandhu’s last brush with the law. Last week (June 15) a Barnala court found sufficient evidence to issue summons to the PPS officer to stand trial in a 11-year-old forgery case. As per the copy of the orders (with The Indian Express),issued by judicial magistrate Neetika Verma,Sandhu has been projected as “a conspirator in the entire chain of events relating to the conspiracy of the alleged forgery of the document.” He will now stand trial on July 10.

Sandhu has been accused of fabricating the the will of one Narinder Kaur on May 2,2001. Kaur’s daughter Manpreet Kant had filed a complaint in 2002. “It took two years to produce a challan in court and it was done in 2004. After nine years,the first witness in the case was called and now the court has ordered issuance of summons against Sandhu. It is very surprising that person with such a past has been promoted as DIG,” Kant said.

When contacted,Punjab Home Secretary D S Bains was unaware of the orders issued against Sandhu by a Barnala court. He,however,said: “The DIG promotion of Sandhu is provisional. Although UPSC has cleared the list,the Punjab government has put it on hold and depends on outcome of the cases by December this year.”