A local court here Wednesday sent Ashok Sheoran, who headed the Haryana Police Special Task Force (STF) and was arrested after being caught on camera trying to extort money from a jeweller here, to police remand for five days.
Police Monday arrested Sheoran and seven other STF members — three assistant sub-inspectors and four constables, who are in police remand till March 20.
Sheoran, an additional superintendent of police, was presented in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Gagandeep Kaur, who sent him in police remand till March 21.
“We have managed to get the police remand of Sheoran. During the interrogation we will try to ascertain his involvement in this case of extortion. We will also verify his past record,” investigating officer Rajinder Singh, who is also the district police chief, told IANS Wednesday evening.
According to the jeweller, the STF men came to his shop in this industrial city of haryana, 150 km from Chandigarh, March 11 and demanded Rs.10 lakh. The jeweller gave Rs.1 lakh to head constable Jagbir Singh and asked him to come later for the remaining amount.
The handover was recorded by the CCTV cameras in the shop. The jeweller complained to the police, who set a trap.
The police were already investigating a complaint by a stock broker who had claimed paying Rs.10 lakh to the STF team a few days back. When the stock broker viewed the CCTV footage, he recognised the STF personnel as the men who had taken money from him also.
In March 2008, Sheoran’s pistol was used to kill Delhi Police encounter specialist Rajbir Singh, who was shot dead by a property-dealer friend at Gurgaon, police had said earlier.
During the investigation it was found that the weapon belonged to Sheoran, who said he had lost it and he even showed the missing report registered with the police.
However, till date the Delhi Police, Haryana Police and the CBI, which was investigating Rajbir’s killing, could not ascertain how Sheoran’s weapon reached the hands of the killer.
