ED arrests sacked Punjab cop Inderjit Singh in money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested dismissed Punjab Police Inspector Inderjit Singh under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

Though the arrest took place on October 24, ED officials shared the details of the same on Wednesday. The special PMLA court in Mohali had on the same day granted custody of Inderjit Singh to ED and sent the dismissed officer to a fourteen-day judicial custody.

The ED had initiated a probe on the basis of an FIR registered by the Punjab Police under various sections of the NDPS Act, Prevention of Corruption Act and Arms Act, 1959, against the agent, who was with the CIA in Jalandhar and Kapurthala posted for a long time. Singh was arrested by the STF in June 2017 with the recovery of 4 kg of heroin and an AK-47 assault rifle.

The ED investigation so far has revealed that Singh was involved in nefarious activities with drug smugglers by providing them protection. He would conduct searches, seize drugs from the smugglers and arrest them under the NDPS Act. However, after the arrests, Singh asked for bribes from the smugglers in exchange for facilitating their bail. Furthermore, he used threats and coercion to extort money from the families of these smugglers.

Singh had arrested smuggler Gurjit Singh (now deceased) and seized 13 kg of heroin, cash of Rs 60 lakh and 19-20 tolas of gold from him. However, from this he had recovered only Rs 36 lakh and kept the remaining Rs 24 lakh and gold with himself.

Singh then intimidated Gurjit Singh’s family and allegedly extorted a total of Rs 39 lakh from them. Further, according to the findings, Singh also pressured Gurjit to transfer their house in his name for not involving his wife and father in the drug case. Later he got the ownership of House No. 4, Max Colony, Chheharta, Amritsar, transferred in the name of his associate. The ED has already attached the house and a fixed deposit of Rs 32.42 lakh in this case.

Singh was also reportedly found in possession of 3 kg of smack, Rs 16.5 lakh in cash, 3,550 pounds, a Toyota Innova car and a Mahindra Scorpio car during searches conducted by the STF, Punjab Police.