‘ ₹20,000 was paid as fine not bribe’:Special CBI court lets off policeman

CBI submitted in its closure report that the ASI, who was arrested for taking the bribe from a truck driver, had collected it as fine

The special court of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday accepted a closure report filed by the CBI in January, which claimed that ASI Bhupinder Singh, who was arrested for accepting bribe of ₹20,000 from a truck driver in Sector 23, had taken the amount as fine.

Bhupinder was on deputation with the Punjab state transport department and posted as driver with assistant transport officer (ATO) Sukhwinder Singh Brar.

In June 2019, Bhupinder was arrested for allegedly taking ₹20,000 in bribe from a trucker, Punam Chand of Rajasthan, the complainant in the case.

While searching Bhupinder’s house, the CBI found letterheads of Punjab CM office, stamps of the officer on special duty to the CM and ₹8 lakh. The CBI officials had also recovered a diary with contact details of several transport firms.

A case was registered under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (amendment) Act, 2018, as the accused had stopped the truck of Chand near Dhanas, Chandigarh, and posed as the ATO. The accused took away the original documents of the truck and demanded a bribe of ₹20,000 for returning them.

It was stated that Bhupinder had worked as a driver with the CM office as well, and, hence, could have stolen the letterheads and stamps.

Stating that the case may be closed as the case under the act was not substantiated, the CBI said in the closure report that Bhupinder had taken the amount as fine under the Motor Vehicles Act and also issued the receipt to the complainant. This fact was negated by the CBI trap team at that time, but, later in investigation, it was found that the challan book and compound receipt book were genuine.