CHANDIGARH, Sept 24: Dismissed Punjab Police Assistant Inspector General of Police Raj Jit Singh, who had been absconding in a case linked to an alleged nexus between police officers and drug traffickers, was arrested from Patiala on Thursday, officials said.
Singh, who had been absconding for the past three years, was apprehended from a house in Darshan Singh Nagar in Patiala, a senior police official said.
He was apprehended following technical and financial investigation by a team of the Anti-Narcotics Task Force.
Singh was dismissed from service in April 2023 by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann following proceedings based on three reports of a special investigation team formed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
These reports were about an alleged nexus between police officers and drug traffickers in the state.
The SIT, formed in 2017, had the mandate to probe allegations of complicity of Raj Jit Singh, the then senior superintendent of police, Moga, in respect of his alleged association with dismissed police inspector Inderjit Singh.
Inderjit Singh was dismissed following alleged recovery of drugs by the special task force in 2017.
One of the reports stated that significant points emerged which indicate complicity of Raj Jit Singh with Inderjit Singh.
The contents of three reports of the SIT proved complicity of dismissed PPS officer Raj Jit Singh with the dismissed Inspector and their collusion with drug smugglers, according to the Government order issued in 2023.
Raj Jit had allegedly given patronage to Inderjit and the duo had “misused and abused” their official positions to “mint money”, the order stated.
“During the tenure of Raj Jit Singh as SSP Tarn Taran and Inderjit Singh as in-charge CIA, more than 50 samples in cases under NDPS Act failed which shows that they had not left any stone unturned to hijack the government machinery to fulfil their own vested interests,” the order stated.
“Raj Jit Singh PPS as SSP Tarn Taran abused his official positions in order to shield the drug peddlers/smugglers from the clutches of law, implicate the innocent persons in false drug cases and also managed to scuttle the investigations in the FIRs registered against Inderjit Singh,” it added.
According to the order, Raj Jit was “well aware” of the technicalities involved in the cases registered under the NDPS Act and together with Inderjit Singh “used those technicalities as tools to serve his own vested interests, to extort money and to help the drug peddlers/smugglers escape the stringent punishment”.
Raj Jit Singh had been instrumental in such anti-national and illegal activities by abusing his official position in complicity with said Inderjit Singh,” it added.
