india

Updated: May 03, 2019 04:28 IST

In a first recovery in the priest’s missing money case, the Patiala police on Thursday arrested five persons and seized Rs 2.38 crore from them.

Those arrested are close relatives and friends of ASIs Joginder Singh and Rajpreet Singh, who were arrested from a Kochi hotel on Tuesday.

A team comprising senior superintendent of police Mandeep Sidhu, SP Krishan Kumar and Inspector Shaminder Singh conducted simultaneous raids at Mansa, Moonak (Sangrur), Patran & Patiala (civil lines) to recover cash.

The ASIs were part of a team that conducted a raid at the house Father Anthony Maddasery in Jalandhar on March 29 and are accused of pilfering Rs 6.63 crore out of the amount recovered during the search. Anthony had claimed the money was from business proceeds and had alleged that police recovered Rs 16.65 crore from his house, but showed it to be Rs 9.66 crore, while misappropriating the remaining account.

“The accused ASIs had kept the money with their relatives and friends. We conducted raids in Mansa, Sangrur and Patiala (four locations) and recovered Rs 2.38 crore. Five persons have been arrested,” said SSP Sidhu, who is also member of the SIT investigating the case.

Those arrested are Surinderpal Sharma, a resident of Patran, with Rs 40 lakh, Mohd Shakeel, a resident of Patiala, with Rs 20 lakh, and Head Constable Amrik Singh with Rs 30 lakh, Devinder Kumar Kala, a resident of Moonak, with Rs 30 lakh and Sanjeev Kumar, also a resident of Moonak, with Rs 18 lakh. The SSP said Rs 1 crore was recovered from residence of Nirmal Singh of Raipur village in Mansa but the accused is absconding.

ASI Joginder had kept the money with Surinderpal and Shakeel. Head Constable Amrik and Nirmal are close relative of ASI Rajpreet Singh. Amrik is posted as ‘munshi’ at the Civil Lines Police Station in Patiala.

The accused, as per sources, have told police that Rajpreet and Joginder had kept money after taking it from Anthony’s house. “The role of top brass of Khanna police is also under scanner as both the ASIs remained in touch with senior officials there”, said a source.

“The accused will spill more beans when they all will be quizzed together. More recovery is anticipated,” they added.

The election commission had on Wednesday shunted out Khanna police chief Dhruv Dahiya. Punjab chief electoral officer S Karuna Raju had sought a detailed report from state police chief Dinkar Gupta in the case that has resulted in a major embarrassment for the police department and raised serious doubts over its conduct, especially when the poll code has kicked in the wake of the Lok Sabha polls.