Two ASIs, missing with over Rs 6 crore seized during raid, arrested

The priest had reportedly claimed that the money was kept at his house because company employees had refused to go and deposit it in the bank due to the model code of conduct in view of the Lok Sabha polls

Chandigarh/Kochi: Punjab Police Tuesday said two of its assistant sub-inspectors of police, absconding for the past one month with a sum of over Rs 6 crore recovered during a raid at a house, have been arrested by Kerala Police from Kochi. According to Punjab Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta, based on specific inputs that two persons were staying at a hotel in Kochi after providing fake fake identity proofs, Kerala Police arrested ASIs -- Joginder Singh and Rajpreet Singh -- late afternoon on Tuesday.

Special Investigation Team head Praveen Kumar Sinha, who is Inspector-General of Police Crime, Punjab, has left for Kochi to bring back the two accused, as per the DGP. During interrogation, it was found that the duo had left Punjab after they were suspended in connection with siphoning of part of the money seized during the raid, police said. Earlier, the SIT, probing the pilferage of the amount from Rs 16.65 crore cash recovered from a priest's house in Jalandhar last month, had arrested one more ASI-rank policeman for his collusion with the other accused.

After the raid, police said the Income Tax Department officials were informed about the cash seizure and investigations were launched. The priest had claimed the money to be from business proceeds and had accused that police recovered Rs 16.65 crore from his house, but claimed it to be Rs 9.66 crore, while misappropriating the remaining account. However, police dismissed his allegations as "baseless". The priest had reportedly claimed that the money was kept at his house because company employees had refused to go and deposit it in the bank due to the model code of conduct in view of the Lok Sabha polls.

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