ACB to probe corruption angle against CCB’s 3 suspended officers

DG and IGP Praveen Sood has directed the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to probe the corruption charges against three police officers recently suspended for taking kickbacks from tobacco dealers to let them operate during the lockdown.

Prabhushankar M, an assistant commissioner of police (ACP) in the Central Crime Branch (CCB), Ajay R M and Niranjan Kumar, both inspectors in the Economic Offences Wing of the CCB will be now investigated under the Prevention of Corruption Act based on the reports filed by Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime-1) Kuldeep Kumar Jain and Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime-2) Ravi Kumar K P against the officers.

Two separate cases have been registered against the trio at the Cottonpet police station under IPC Section 384 – Extortion. Based on the statements by the dealers who paid them a huge amount, the Prevention of Corruption Act charges and other IPC charges are added into the case accordingly.

The ACB will probe only the corruption angle while Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Ramesh B will investigate extortion, threatening and misuse of official powers by public servants angle.

According to a senior officer, the ACB will take over the investigation on Friday or Saturday.

On the other hand, the efforts are on to trace the officers who are allegedly on run to get the anticipatory bail. Rs 30 lakh has been recovered from the three officers before they went into hiding.

Two FIRs have been registered against them: one in tobacco dealers' case and another for extorting Rs 15 lakh from a dealer of fake N95 masks in Chamarajpet.