In a massive crackdown on corruption, Punjab's Vigilance Bureau on Thursday arrested former Vigilance Bureau AIG Ashish Kapoor in a 2016 corruption case. As per the information received, Ashish Kapoor is facing the charges of taking a bribe of Rs 1 crore from Poonam Rajan's mother Prem Lata when she along with brother Kuldeep Singh and sister-in-law Preeti, were in police remand in case FIR No. 151/2018 u/s 420/120-B IPC at Zirakpur Police station.
What is the whole matter?
This matter was of that time when Ashish Kapoor being posted as Superintendent, Central Jail, Amritsar, in 2016 had got acquainted with Poonam Rajan who was under judicial remand in the Jail in a case. When Poonam Rajan, along with her mother Prem Lata, brother Kuldeep Singh and sister-in-law Preeti, was in police remand at Zirakpur Police Station, Ashish Kapoor went to the police station and fraudulently convinced Poonam Rajan's mother Prem Lata that he will arrange their bail and acquittal from the court.
Ashish Kapoor, in connivance with Pawan Kumar, the then SHO, Zirakpur Police Station, and ASI Harjinder Singh, got Preeti, sister-in-law of Poonam Rajan declared innocent in the case. Furthermore, Kapoor obtained the signatures of Prem Lata on different cheques amounting to Rs. 100,00,000/- and deposited them under the names of his known ones, and got them encashed through ASI Harjinder Singh.
As a result, Vigilance stated that by doing so, Ashish Kapoor, Pawan Kumar, and Harjinder Singh have committed offenses under Sections 7, 7-A Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 as amended by PC (Amendment) Act, 2018 and 420, 120-B IPC.
This case was investigated by Kunwar Vijay Pratap who was an IG at that time and submitted the report in April 2019. But, AIG Ashish Kapoor has so many connections that no one took an action against him. Right now, Kunwar Vijay Pratap is AAP MLA from Amritsar North. In his investigation, he wrote that Ashish Kapoor is a public servant but he misused his powers and continuously raped Poonam Rajan during her custody.
Recently in a press conference, Poonam Rajan made multiple allegations against the officer. Earlier, Poonam Rajan also gave her statement in front of the Mohali Judicial Magistrate and mentioned that in 2016 when she met Ashish Kapoor, he made a relationship with her and also gave her a job inside the jail. Ashish Kapoor used to pressurize her to divorce her husband and get married to her. The relationship continued for two years. Then after a clash in their relationship, Ashish Kapoor gets a case registered on Poonam Rajan's family and later took money from the family to get them free from it.
When this matter came to light of the then Jail Minister, Sukhjinder Randhawa, he suspended the then Jail Superintendent Rajan Kapoor and other three jail officials. Because it is said that Rajan Kapoor was also involved in this rape case. But the question that arises here is why there was no action against AIG Ashish Kapoor so far.