Chandigarh Court Clears Two Punjab Police ASIs in ₹10,000 Graft Case
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Bringing an end to a protracted ten-year legal ordeal, a Chandigarh district court has granted absolute exoneration to two Assistant Sub-Inspectors (ASIs) of the Punjab Police, Amrik Singh and Ravinder Singh, in connection with an alleged ₹10,000 bribery case dating back to 2016. Delivering significant relief to the two law enforcement officials on Friday, September 25, 2026, the judicial bench formally accepted the police department’s cancellation report, quashing the lingering First Information Report (FIR). The closure followed categorical admissions by the investigating agency that the corruption allegations could not be substantiated with verifiable evidence, alongside the Punjab government's refusal to grant statutory sanction for their criminal prosecution.
The 2016 Compassionate Recruitment Dispute: How the ₹10,000 Bribery Allegation Emerged
The roots of the criminal proceedings trace back to August 10, 2016, when the Chandigarh Police registered a formal FIR at the Sector-3 Police Station under Sections 420 (cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, in tandem with Sections 7 and 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The complainant, identified as Joga Raj Singh, alleged that his uncle, a serving Punjab Police personnel, had been killed in the line of duty during terrorist violence in 1992. Decades later, his cousin Gurpreet Singh applied for employment under the state's compassionate appointment quota. According to the complaint, the recruitment dossier was assigned to ASIs Amrik Singh and Ravinder Singh, both stationed at the E-3 establishment branch inside the Punjab Police Headquarters. The complainant claimed that the two sub-inspectors solicited an illicit gratification of ₹10,000 to process the file, alleging that ₹3,000 had been handed over to Amrik Singh and ₹5,000 to Ravinder Singh, which prompted Chandigarh Police to initiate immediate custodial arrests.
Lack of Independent Corroboration and Denied Sanction: Bench Accepts Police Cancellation Plea
The prosecution's case subsequently collapsed during exhaustive investigative scrutiny when the agency failed to unearth concrete, credible, or independent evidence demonstrating that the accused officers ever formally demanded or accepted illegal gratification. Crucially, when Chandigarh Police approached the competent administrative department of the Punjab government seeking statutory sanction under Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, state authorities formally rejected the proposal, determining that the foundational charges lacked legal merit. With senior supervisory officers approving the closure of proceedings, the investigative agency submitted a formal cancellation report before the court, requesting the complete nullification of the case and bringing definitive legal closure to the decade-long trial.
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