3 Assistant Sub-Inspectors of Police are among 4 Punjab policemen dismissed

Three Assistant Sub-Inspectors of Police (ASIs) are among four Punjab policemen dismissed from service, over four months after they raided a priest's house in Jalandhar without any approval, a senior official said.

Senior police official of Patiala Mandeep Singh Sidhu on Saturday dismissed the four policemen, who are currently lodged in the Patiala Central Jail.

The four were part of a police party which conducted a raid at a priest's house in Jalandhar without any approval in April this year.

He said the policemen were dismissed following departmental inquiries.

Mr Sidhu said the dismissed policemen include ASIs Joginder Singh, Rajpreet Singh, Dilbagh Singh and Head Constable Amrik Singh.

The Khanna Police had in March initially claimed to have recovered Rs 9.66 crore from six men including a church priest.

However, the priest had taken up the issue with the police and the Income Tax Department and sought that the entire Rs 16.65 crore "seized" money be released forthwith.

The priest had claimed that the money was part of the business proceeds and accused the police of allegedly misappropriating some amount from the money they had seized from the premises.

The Patiala Police had held a departmental probe into the alleged role of ASIs Joginder Singh and Rajpreet Singh, whose statements helped the investigating team recover Rs 4.60 crore.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) handling the case claimed that accused ASIs Joginder Singh and Rajpreet Singh had returned the sum "pilfered" from the confiscated amount during the raid.

Two ASIs of the Khanna Police were arrested for allegedly pocketing Rs 5.8 crore from the seized amount. A sum of Rs 4.60 crore had been recovered from them so far.