Chandigarh: A special CBI court in Mohali on Monday sentenced former Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Devinder Singh Garcha and former SP (Superintendent of Police) Paramdip Singh Sandhu of Punjab’s Moga district to five years of imprisonment, along with Rs 2 lakh fine, each, under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) in connection with the infamous 2007 Moga sex scandal case.
The CBI special judge, Rakesh Gupta, pronounced the verdict after convicting Garcha, Sandhu and two more police officers - the then Moga city Station House Officer (SHO) Raman Kumar and the then inspector Amarjit Singh - on March 29.
Inspector Amarjit Singh was sentenced to six-and-half years of rigorous imprisonment (RI) and fined Rs 2.5 lakh, a sub-inspector Raman Kumar sentenced to eight years of RI and fined Rs 3 lakh. While Singh was also convicted for attempting extortion, Kumar was convicted for extortion.
While both Singh and Kumar were dismissed from service, Garcha and Sandhu later held the position of assistant inspector general of police (AIG).
The CBI court acquitted Barjinder Singh alias Makhan, son of former Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) minister Tota Singh and one Sukhraj Singh of all the charges.
The 18-year old sex scandal had made national news as it involved high-profile politicians and senior police officials extorting youths belonging to rich families by trapping them in flesh trade case. The case was handed over to CBI in 2007 on the order of Punjab and Haryana High Court which framed the charges in 2012 against the accused.
THE SCANDAL
The infamous scandal had come to light on June 7, 2007, during SAD-BJP rule when a gangrape case was registered at Moga police station based on a complaint lodged by a young woman. An investigation into the case brought out disturbing facts that some police officers manipulated the case, allegedly adding names of businessmen and politicians to extort money.
The case snowballed into a major scandal after an audio recording surfaced, allegedly pertaining to extortion being demanded by police officers to settle the case. The probe which further revealed that a racket of two women who in collusion with the police officers would trap businessmen to extort money, led to the arrest and conviction of the four main police officers.
