Vigilance Bureau busts fake recruitment scam in Punjab Police

Chandigarh: The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB), during its ongoing drive against corruption in the state, has busted a fake recruitment scam in Punjab police and arrested two employees of the state police for accepting bribes totalling Rs. 26,02,926 from 102 persons in exchange for jobs of grade-4 employees in the police.

The arrested individuals have been identified as Tarlochan Pal (No. 207/S), posted in the 3rd IRB as a Cleaner (grade-4 worker), residing at Mohalla Begampur in Adampur, district Jalandhar, and co-accused Surinderpal (No. 3B), posted as a Barber (grade-4 worker) at the Punjab Police Academy in Phillaur, a resident of village of Sikri in Nilokheri, district Karnal, Haryana.

Disclosing this here today an official spokesperson of the VB said both the above mentioned accused were arrested following an investigation of a complaint lodged at the Chief Minister’s Anti-Corruption Action Line portal by complainant Surinder Singh, a resident of the village of Nanglan, tehsil Garhshankar, district Hoshiarpur.

He informed that both the arrested accused have been produced in a Jalandhar court today on 12.06.2024 and obtained two days police remand. During their custody they would be interrogated in depth to get information on how many other innocent persons were deceived and the total money collected in this recruitment fraud.

The spokesperson further added that during the preliminary investigation of this complaint by the VB Jalandhar range, the charges made by the complainant were found to be accurate, leading to the registration of a fraud case against both the accused.

Providing more details, he added that the investigation revealed that the accused, Tarlochan Pal and his associate Surinderpal, had falsely assured the gullible persons that about 560 grade-4 vacancies were to be filled in the Punjab Police in the coming months. Acting in collusion, they demanded Rs. 25,000 per person to secure the jobs as grade-4 employees in the state police thereby collected huge money from numerous individuals across the state. Consequently, Tarlochanpal received a total of Rs. 18,09,100 as bribes, which were deposited into his various bank accounts. Out of this amount, Tarlochanpal had transferred Rs. 5,45,000 to Surinderpal’s HDFC bank account. In addition to this, accused Surinderpal had received Rs. 7,93,826 in his bank account separately.

The spokesperson further informed that during the probe it was found that a total of Rs. 26,02,926 were collected as bribes by both the accused from about 102 persons on the pretext of getting them jobs. Consequently, a case under sections 420 and 120-B of the IPC, and under section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered against both the accused at VB police station Jalandhar range.

He added that accused Surinderpal, during interrogation, has told the VB that he and Tarlochanpal took the said money from job aspirants and gave about Rs 9.00 lakh to two employees posted at Punjab Police Headquarters Chandigarh. He revealed that out of Rs 9.00 lakh, they had returned some money to him after they failed to get recruited the job seekers but the rest of the money was never returned.

He added that during the investigation, the statements of various victims of this fake recruitment scam are being recorded and more affected persons could appear before the Bureau to provide information in this regard.