Assets worth more than Rs 1.32 crore of a former Punjab Police inspector have been attached under the anti-money laundering law for alleged corruption while probing a case against a drug smuggler, the ED said on Thursday. The agency said a provisional order has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act for attaching a house in Chheharta in Amritsar district and a fixed deposit of Rs 32.42 lakh in the investigation against former inspector Inderjit Singh. The “market value” of the house is about Rs 1 crore, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said in a statement. The money laundering case stems from a charge sheet filed by the Punjab Police’s Special Task Force against Singh under the Indian Penal Code, the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
Singh had arrested a drugs smuggler and he later started “pressurising his family, through his accomplice, and got the ownership of a residential house in the name of a relative of his accomplice for helping the smuggler in getting bail”, the ED said.
The former Punjab Police Inspector, the agency alleged, also received “illegal gratification” of Rs 39 lakh in cash from the family members of the smuggler, through his accomplice, for not framing another case against the smuggler and his family. “The immovable property, which has been attached, was obtained directly by Inderjit Singh as a result of the scheduled offence,” the ED said.