Police officer arrested for snatching Rs 32 lakh from man in Bihar

Saran (Bihar): A police officer of Bihar was on Saturday arrested on the charge of intercepting the car of a person and snatching Rs 32 lakh from him in Saran district.

An official said that Station House Officer (SHO) of Maker police station Raviranjan Kumar was arrested, a home guard Anil Kumar who was also allegedly involved in the crime was absconding.

The SHO was suspended and departmental proceedings have been initiated against him, Superintendent of Police Kumar Ashish said.

"A person called, Rohan Kumar, registered a complaint on Friday that two persons wearing police uniforms snatched Rs 32 lakh from him near Rewa Ghat," the SP told reporters.

He told the police that the incident took place when he was going to Muzaffarpur in his car.

According to his complaint, he was carrying Rs 64 lakh in two bags. His vehicle was stopped by a police vehicle that belonged to the Maker police station. Two policemen inspected his vehicle and asked whether he was carrying liquor bottles or not, the SP said.

According to the complaint, one of the policemen took both the bags to the police vehicle but after sometime one of them returned one bag to Kumar and asked him to leave the spot.

The policeman also threatened to lodge a false case of violation of prohibition laws against the complainant, the SP told the media.

Bihar is a dry state where the sale and consumption of alcohol have been banned since April 2016.

The matter was investigated by a senior police official, and it was found that the allegations levelled by the complainant were true. Later, police arrested the SHO.

"The police also recovered Rs 32 lakh from the house of Anil Kumar, a home guard, who was with the SHO when the incident happened. Anil Kumar is absconding," the SP said.

Further investigation revealed that the complainant was carrying Rs 64 lakh, and was travelling to Muzaffarpur with the money he received after selling his land, said the SP.

An investigation is on, he added.