Lucknow: Arvind Sen, an IPS officer, who was on the run in connection with a multi-crore tender scam, gave a slip to the police on Wednesday and surrendered before a Lucknow court.
A native of Ayodhya, the Lucknow court remanded judicial custody for Sen till February 9. Evading police arrest, the IPS officer had moved a surrender application which was to be heard on Wednesday. Police men dressed in plain clothes were deployed in and around court to arrest him but Sen gave a slip to the police and surrendered before the court.
Three days from now, the IPS officer is slated to retire on January 31. He was suspended by the state government after he was allegedly charged with extracting Rs 9.72 crores from a Madhya Pradesh businessman Manjit Singh Bhatia by floating a fake tender in 2018.
The businessman had lodged an FIR against Sen and others in June 2020. After the FIR, the IPS officer allegedly called the businessman to his office in Lucknow and threatened him with dire consequences if he did not withdraw the case. Sen was then posted as the Superintendent of Police (SP) in CB-CID.
The police have so far arrested 13 persons in this connection. The state government had placed the IPS officer under suspension when his name figured in the case during investigation.
Fearing arrest after the police filed the chargesheet, Sen went underground forcing the Lucknow court to declare him a ‘proclaimed offender’ in December last. The police had also announced a cash reward of Rs 50,000 for furnishing any information about him on January 6.
