Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Harsimranjeet Singh wrote a letter to Punjab director general of police (DGP) for conducting an inquiry against a DSP for his alleged role in ‘botched-up’ investigations in two cases of immigration fraud.

In his letter, the ADSJ Harsimranjeet wrote that it was the “disquiet” arising from the repetitive checkered pattern of the ‘so-called’ inquiries carried out by DSP Gursher Singh Sandhu (now posted as DSP Special Cell), which constrains this court to carry out an “incisive” and “meaningful” probe into the modus operandi and the real intentions behind the “facade of glaringly bizarre and seemingly predisposed conclusions rendered by the DSP in which the real victims had been further victimized instead of their grievance being assured and the repeatedly named culprits had been astonishingly given a clean chit at the very threshold” by Sandhu “either due to his ineptitude or due to some other extraneous motive”.

The ADSJ further wrote that the “botched-up approach” for conducting inquiry by Sandhu came to his notice in two cases: in the first case an FIR was filed on November 15, 2023 under IPC and Immigration Act at Sohana police station, and the second one was registered on January 6, 2023 under IPC and Punjab Travel Regulation Act, at Kharar (Sadar) police station.

“In the afore-noted case, one of the immigration agents, who had beguiled five-six innocent persons namely Gurwinder Singh, Malkit Singh and Jobanpreet Singh, Shamsher Singh, Shera and Charanjit Singh Sonu on the pretext of sending them abroad, had received handsome sum of money from them but in spite of clear-cut oral as well as documentary evidence, he was made complainant in the said case in order to screen him from punishment. The complicity of the said Gurpreet Singh in the conspiracy of the other co-accused was quite evident, but he was quite astutely made complainant, whereas he was also working as one of the cohorts of the remaining accused, who were indulged in immigration fraud and human trafficking,” the ADSJ said.

He further wrote that the inquiry officer Sandhu, while sidestepping from the accountability of the conclusions rendered by him, wherein he literally shifted the real accused, repeatedly named by the acknowledged victims in their statements made before him, to the status of ostensible complainant and thus foreclosing proceedings against the real accused at the very outset. In his reply, he had attempted to pass the buck to the investigating officer (IO) while submitting that the IO could have arrayed any other person as accused during the course of inquiry while disagreeing with his conclusions contained in the inquiry report.

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“Be that as it may, this mere fact does not absolve him of the accountability of the conclusions contained in the inquiry reports which are seemingly motivated and oblique. Another common thread running in both the aforesaid inquiry reports, in which the real accused (as claimed by real victims) were conveniently projected as complainant/ prosecution witness and a monetary amount was involved,” the additional sessions judge said.

In the FIR registered at Kharar, the racket was of more than Rs 10 crore, while in FIR registered at Sohana amount of approximately Rs. 2.6 crore was involved.

“It is worth wondering how the inquiry officer could claim that IO is free to nominate any other person as accused during the course of investigation, whereas he himself being gazetted officer, did not render any findings against such culprits. Still further, it is a matter of common knowledge that IO, who is more often than not of the rank of inspector or sub inspector rarely nominates any other person probably in obedience to the findings of the inquiry report conducted by his/her superior officer. Infact, SI Gurpartap Singh who has been summoned has also stated so, before the court that he cannot go against the findings of his superior. Therefore, the reply filed by DSP Sandhu does not inspire confidence and is liable to be outright discarded,” the letter read.

“Hence, in view of the above stated peculiar circumstances, you are requested to get an inquiry conducted by some senior IPS officer into the role Sandhu in the inquiries carried out by him in the aforesaid criminal cases, whereby some of the culprits namely Vatanpreet Singh , Davinder Singh, Gurnam Singh and Harjot Kaur were let off by him for the reasons best known to him, despite clearcut oral as well as documentary evidence,” the ADSJ said.

Meanwhile, a senior police officer requesting anonymity termed the letter as “biased” and having “personal vendetta” and said that the police will file a reply to the office of Punjab director general of police with all the facts.