Last Updated on 27/07/2024 by Ankita Jain
After the action taken against extortion on the UP-Bihar border in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, five policemen including suspended SHO of Narhi police station Panne Lal, outpost in-charge Rajesh Kumar Prabhakar are absconding. Police have not been able to trace their location yet. The responsibility of investigating this case has been given to ASP Subham Agarwal of Azamgarh, after which he has reached Ballia and started the investigation.
After the action taken in Ballia, five policemen including the SHO are absconding. It is believed that if the suspended SHO does not appear, further action will be taken against him. His room has been sealed which may contain many important evidences. There is also a mention of a red diary in which there is a complete account of this game of extortion.
According to the information, on the complaint of DIG’s PRO Sushil Kumar, a case has been registered against police station in-charge Panne Lal, outpost in-charge Rajesh Kumar, Prabhakar, Satish Gupta, Hari Dayal, Balram Singh, Deepak Mishra, Vishnu Yadav regarding the matter of recovery of money from trucks in Ballia.
Five policemen absconding
Out of these, Satish Gupta and Hari Dayal have been arrested while other policemen are still absconding. The absconding policemen have also switched off their phones due to which their information is not available even through surveillance.
Pannalal, the police station in-charge, is a resident of Gorakhpur and stories of his extortion were famous during his posting in his home district. It is believed that he has connections up to the top in the police department and hence he was given lucrative police stations. He was always posted in such police stations which had high income. He kept getting police stations of his choice.
Panne Lal’s special policemen were on duty at the check post
According to the information, not everyone was put on duty at the Bharouli police checkpost. Only those who were close to the police station in-charge Pannalal were put on duty there. These constables and sub-inspectors were posted there.
Along with this, some selected local people were also employed in this work who would stop the trucks under the protection of the police and collect money from them. Even the policemen posted at this post would go straight to their homes instead of going to the police station and they had nothing to do with the police station.
According to ADG Piyush Mordia of Varanasi Zone, the police personnel caught in the DIG’s raid at the checkpost on the Bihar-UP border have been sent to jail. The remaining rooms have been sealed and further investigation is underway.
Deployment of new policemen in the police station
Now new deployment has been done in Bharauli. Some policemen have joined and some are about to join. Now new policemen are continuously coming to the police station. During this time, complainants are not reaching the police station like everyday and the police mess is also locked.
At the same check post where extortion was done, trucks loaded with different goods kept passing through without any hindrance. During this time, the two policemen present there were busy with their mobiles. They were neither stopping anyone nor questioning anyone. According to DGP Prashant Kumar, investigation is being done on every aspect and the absconding policemen are being searched. Soon, major action will be taken with names in the charge sheet.
5 lakh rupees are collected from trucks every day
Let us tell you that regarding this extortion racket of the police, DIG Vaibhav Krishna and ADG of Varanasi Range had busted the extortion gang by posing as helpers in trucks and the involvement of policemen of Narhi police station was found in this case. After this, 16 brokers including two policemen were arrested. The policemen are accused of extorting Rs 500 from every truck passing through there with the help of private brokers. Every night 1000 trucks used to pass through this border of UP-Bihar, from which five lakhs were being extorted in a day. In this way, the policemen used to earn black money of one and a half crores every month.