JALANDHAR: A sub-inspector (SI) and two assistant sub-inspectors (ASIs) of Punjab police posted at Jalandhar have been booked for allegedly extorting Rs 40,000 from a poor man, who had sold his 20 day-old son to a Delhi resident for Rs 1.5 lakh some days back.

SI Subhash Chander of Basti Bawa Khel police station and ASI Bhupinder Singh of Jalandhar rural police have been arrested. ASI Som Lal of Basti Bawa Khel police station, where the case was registered for the sale of the baby, is absconding.

Jalandhar (West) assistant commissioner of police (ACP), R P S Sandhu, who got the case registered against Dharma for allegedly selling his son, said, "Dharma revealed in his questioning that he was threatened by the three policemen, who told him that he will be booked in the case if he did not pay them money."

ACP Sandhu said the accused cops, aided by two women and a man, initially demanded Rs 50,000 from Dharma after learnt that he had sold his son, but finally the deal was struck for Rs 40,000. "They made him withdraw Rs 40,000 from an automobile agency where he had paid Rs 1.5 lakhs for booking a small cargo vehicle," he said.

Two women, Raj Rani and Kulwant Kaur, and one Kashmir Singh have also been booked under sections 384, 385, 217, 420 and 120 B of the IPC. Jalandhar commissioner of police Ram Singh said it was a case of outright extortion so the accused policemen had been booked under stringent provisions like extortion and cheating. All the three cops have also been placed under suspension.

ACP Sandhu said ASI Bhupinder first came to know about the child-selling case and then took SI Subhash and ASI Som in the loop so that the accused could be frightened more effectively as he was booked under their police station.

