Rajasthan SP held for extorting money from juniors

 The Rajasthan government suspended an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Thursday, a day after he was arrested  on corruption charges, officials said.

The accused officer, Rajesh Meena, posted as superintendent of police (SP) in Ajmer district, was involved in extorting a fixed amount of money from station house officers
(SHOs) of various police stations under his jurisdiction through a middleman, they added.

"As per the rules, Meena was suspended so that he cannot use his influence in the ongoing investigations into the allegations of corruption," said a senior department of personnel (DoP) officer in the state.

According to Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Inspector General of Police Umesh Mishra, the officer was presented before a special ACB court Thursday.

The court sent him to one-day police remand, he added.

"We had requested the court to send him to police remand for further investigation. The court has granted us one-day remand. He will be produced in the court again Friday," said Mishra.

The ACB had under its surveillance a man called Ramdev on suspicion that he was collecting money from each police station in Ajmer district on behalf of Meena.

"We trapped Ramdev and carried out raids at Meena's residence late Wednesday night. We found about Rs.5 lakh unaccounted money during the raid. It has come up during preliminary investigation that the money had been collected by Ramdev from various police stations," said Mishra.