SHO Pantha Chowk arrested by ACB while demanding rupees 8 lac in bribe

Srinagar, May 24: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Friday trapped and arrested the Station House Officer (SHO) of Pantha Chowk, Srinagar, Inspector Azim Iqbal while demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 1.5lacs, reports said.

Anti Corruption Bureau received a written complaint wherein it was alleged that Inspector Azim Khan, SHO Police Station, Pantha Chowk, Srinagar through his tout Mushtaq Ahmad is demanding ₹8.00 lakh as bribe for issuance of a report in an accident case to the complainant, the statement issued said.

"On receipt of the written complaint, to verify genuineness of the allegations leveled in the complaint a discreet pre-trap verification was conducted by the Bureau which revealed that the complaint was genuine and based on the facts. Accordingly, on the recommendations of the verifying officer a case FIR No. 13/2024 under section 7 r/w sec 12 of the PC Act 1988 was registered in PS ACB Srinagar and investigation taken up".

The statement said that the probe revealed that on 25.03.2024 an accident took place at Khanmoh stone quarry site where an excavator run by one Sameer Ahmad Najar was busy in excavating minerals when boulder came heavily on the Hydraulic Excavator and damaged it beyond repair and in the incident one labourer namely Mohd Mushtaq was grievously injured who later on succumbs to the injuries. To this effect PP Khanmoh sent a docket to SHO PS Pantha Chowk for registration of the FIR. Accordingly, FIR No. 26/2024 U/S 188 and 304-A IPC was registered and investigation was taken up by the said SHO himself. During the course of investigation the IO concerned (SHO) booked the operator of Hydraulic excavator and his other associate in the case FIR No.26/2024, also got excavator seized. Therefore, the actual owner of the excavator approached the Insurance company for release of insurance in his favour, the Insurance company assigned the job to Alak Consultancy, which deputed a surveyor to spot who after survey told the owner of the hydraulic excavator to submit a police report and copy of FIR for processing his insurance claim with respect to the excavator. The actual owner of the excavator approached SHO PS Pantha Chowk and also Hon’ble Court for releasing his machine (the Hydraulic Excavator). The Hon’ble Court also sought report from the SHO PS Pantha Chowk for releasing the excavator on two occasions firstly on 1-04-2024 and later on 22-05-2024 but SHO fail to furnish reports on both occasions despite delay in same. The probe revealed that SHO Azim Iqbal was deliberately delaying the matter and finally agreed to provide the requisite reports to applicant (complainant) through his tout Mushtaq Abassi only on the payment of bribe of ₹8 Lakh. Under compulsion the applicant was forced to pay bribe of ₹5.50 Lakh to SHO concerned but still failed to get the reports from them.

During the course of investigation by ACB, a trap team was constituted and SHO concerned namely Inspector Azim Iqbal and his tout namely Mushtaq Ahmad were apprehended red handed while demanding and accepting bribe from complainant inside the premises of the Police Station Pantha Chowk, Srinagar and the bribe amount of ₹1.5 lakh cash and a cheque of ₹50,000 were recovered from the official residence of the SHO. Further during search of the official room of the SHO , ₹5.36 lakhs cash was also recovered and seized on spot in presence of independent witnesses. Both the accused were arrested after completing all legal formalities and will be presented before Hon’ble Anti corruption court Srinagar, the statement said.

Further investigations of the case is going on.