A shocking revelation by the Punjab police on Wednesday alleged that a senior Uttar Pradesh cop accepted a bribe of Rs 45 lakh to release accused Gurpreet Singh alias Gopi Ghanshyam in high profile Nabha jailbreak case.
According to a report in Economic Times, Ghanshyam was detained only to be released subsequently at the behest of an IPS officer from the state.
Immediately after the reports in media surfaced, followed by admissible "audio evidence" by the Punjab cops, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath called on DGP Sulkhan Singh and principal home secretary Arvind Kumar to substitute a high-level probe.
"The government has taken note of the media reports and a high-level inquiry headed by an Additional Director General of Police has been ordered," Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Kumar said while addressing the media.
Punjab police had earlier claimed that Gopi was last seen in Shahjahanpur on September 10 but then mysteriously disappeared.
In a sensational jailbreak, a group of armed men stormed Nabha jail in Punjab's Patiala district in police uniforms and managed to free six prisoners - Harminder Singh Mintoo and Kashmir Singh, both terrorists, and gangsters Dhothian, Vicky Gounder, GurpreetSingh and Neeta Deol - on November 27 last year.
Gurpreet Singh was reportedly hiding at different places in Uttar Pradesh, including at Lucknow and Shahjahanpur. Punjab police and UP anti-terrorist squad have arrested six suspects who had non-bailable warrants issued against them for their role in the jailbreak, said the report.
The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had arrested three persons, Sandeep Tiwari alias Pintu, Amandeep Singh and Harjinder Singh, on September 15 from the state capital here. The trio had reportedly struck a deal with the IPS officer in question for Rs 45 lakh to free Gurpreet, official sources told PTI.
As the controversy erupted, the Special Task Force (STF) issued a clarification stating that the said media reports were "misleading".
With Agency Inputs
