Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, May 25: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) today conducted a raid at the official residence of the SHO Police Station Pantha Chowk, Srinagar, Azim Iqbal Khan during which around Rs 6 lakh were recovered taking the total amount recovered from him to Rs 8 lakh.
Follow the Daily Excelsior channel on WhatsApp
The ACB in a statement said that it trapped and arrested Inspector Azim Iqbal Khan, SHO Police Station Pantha Chowk, Srinagar and his tout Mushtaq Ahmad Abassi for demanding a bribe of Rs 8 lakh.
“The ACB received a written complaint wherein it was alleged that Inspector Azim Khan, SHO Police Station, Pantha Chowk, Srinagar through his tout Mushtaq Ahmad was demanding Rs. 8.00 lakh as bribe for issuance of a report in an accident case to the complainant,” read the statement.
It said that the trap was laid on receipt of the written complaint, to verify genuineness of the allegations levelled 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 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 succumbed 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 investigation officer concerned (SHO) booked the operator of the Hydraulic excavator and his other associate in the case FIR No.26/2024, also got the excavator seized”, the statement said.
It said that 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.
“He approached SHO PS Pantha Chowk and Court for releasing his machine (the Hydraulic Excavator). The 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 ACB 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 Rs. 8 Lakh. “Under compulsion the applicant was forced to pay a bribe of Rs. 5.50 Lakh to SHO concerned but still failed to get the reports from them”.
During the course of investigation by the ACB, a trap team was constituted and SHO Inspector Azim Iqbal and his tout 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 Rs. 1.5 lakh cash and a cheque of Rs. 50,000 were recovered from the official residence of the SHO. “Further during search of the official room of the SHO, Rs. 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 Anti corruption court Srinagar”.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
