Chandigarh, Nov 2: A hidden camera video has exposed a plot by the police to frame a Hindu religious leader and a Shiv Sena leader in a drug case, causing significant embarrassment to the Punjab Police department.
An Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) of the Punjab Police attempted to register a false case by planting drugs at the residence of Hindu religious leader Mahant Kashmiri Giri. Following the discovery of this act, which was captured on a hidden camera, the officer has been suspended.
The video shows heroin being placed under a bed shortly before the police raid. Following the emergence of this footage, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Sukhdev Singh, attached to the Khanna Police Station in Ludhiana district, was suspended from service.
Khanna SSP Dr. Darpan Ahluwalia ordered the suspension of ASI Sukhdev Singh. Furthermore, Mahant Kashmiri Giri, who had been arrested on charges of drug trafficking following the raid, has been released from the case. On Saturday, the Khanna police announced that they had arrested Mahant Kashmiri Giri—a religious leader and Shiv Sena figure—after seizing heroin from his home. However, shortly thereafter, CCTV footage from a hidden camera inside Giri’s home went viral on social media.
The viral footage clearly shows an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI), Sukhdev Singh—who was in plain clothes—entering a room and placing something under a bed. Subsequently, a police team led by Sadar Station House Officer (SHO) Vijaypal Singh and City-2 SHO Tarvinder Kumar Bedi arrived at the scene. Under the pretext of conducting a search, they “seized” 30 grams of heroin from beneath that very bed and took Giri into custody.
This incident has also triggered a political attack against the AAP government in the state. Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal has sharply criticized the Bhagwant Mann-led government over the video and the conduct of the police.
The CCTV footage captured the police ASI in the act of secretly hiding a packet of narcotics under a bed inside the house! The AAP government had promised to deliver civic services to people’s doorsteps—but who knew that the Punjab Police would go so far as to deliver drugs to one’s home just to frame a citizen? …asked Sukhbir Singh Badal.