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Nearly two dozen police personnel were arrested on charges of corruption last year. In the past three years, about 70 police personnel including 25 Sub-Inspectors and Assistant Sub-Inspectors; head constables and constables were booked for various crimes; most were booked on graft charges.
Be it Sub-Inspector (SI) Sukhdeep Singh who was nabbed for demanding bribe of Rs 12,000 for verifying the address of a passport-aspirant or SI Baljit Singh who was arrested by CBI for accepting a bribe of Rs 20,000 from a poppy-husk dealer, Chandigarh Police has plenty of black sheep in its force.
Surprisingly, while the salary of a Sub-Inspector is a mere Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000, most of them own swanky cars, upmarket mobile phones, the bills of which run in thousands of rupees, and enjoy lavish lifestyles. Despite the strongest-ever hierarchy in the history of city police, with an Inspector General of Police, one Deputy Inspector General of Police, three Senior Superintendents of Police; none of the officers have ever bothered to see how these SIs are affording such lifestyles with the given salaries.
The city police probationers, particularly at the level of Sub-Inspectors, are emerging as the most corrupt lot, when compared to other ranks. The facts are quite evident from the recent arrests where the CBI had exposed the corrupt levels of Chandigarh Police officers. The SIs are usually the investigating officers in most cases. Since they are in direct contact with the complainant or the accused, it is easy for them to extort money, promising help to either.
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