Arrest Of Dgp Virk

[lsingh]

Using ‘cats’ to fight terror not unusual: Amarinder

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

Amarinder Singh comes out after meeting S.S. Virk at the PGI, Chandigarh, on Monday. — Tribune photo by Manoj Mahajan

Chandigarh, September 10

The issue of keeping “cats”- militants-turned police informers, today snowballed into a political controversy with former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh saying the police used “cats” to tackle terrorism all over the world and Punjab was no exception.

Hinting at wide ramifications of registering a case against former Punjab DGP S.S. Virk for allegedly maintaining “cats” to fight terror, Amarinder Singh said “there may be hundreds of such operatives in Kashmir and Nagaland”. How else can terrorism be curbed without infiltrating into their ranks? he asked alleging “ show me one police officer in Punjab who did not use ‘cats’ for undercover operations.

The arrest of Virk was a “tragedy”motivated by political vendetta launched by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Singh Badal. Amarinder said he was in touch with the Congress high-command and Virk would be defended.

The former Chief Minister spent close to 30 minutes with Virk in a private room in the PGI here today. Virk was referred from the civil hospital Mohali to the PGI for treatment of his hypertension. A medical board comprising senior doctors from the surgery, internal medicine and cardiology was set up. It examined him and advised Virk be admitted to the hospital. Virk has been on a sort of “hunger strike” since arrest by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau on Sunday morning. He has refused to eat anything. A senior cop cajoled him into having tea this morning.

Virk, in the past, has been treated for cancer of the urinary bladder. During his admission at the PGI, his heart functions needed to be assessed in addition to achieving good blood pressure control, said the PGI. Amarinder said Virk had high morale and did not crumble or let emotions take over as the two met. Amarinder was accompanied by a couple of loyalists and the director PGI had deputed a team of doctors to brief Amarinder Singh on Virk’s condition.

Meanwhile Amarinder Singh ,talking to media persons, said he could not comment if “cats” had operated in Punjab during terrorism with the knowledge of the central intelligence agencies or the government of India.

Amarinder Singh said it was Badal who ordered the arrest of Virk and not Sumedh Singh Saini director of the VB. How can Saini, an IG-level officer order the arrest of serving DGP ? Badal was lying when he said through his media adviser that such matters did not require the intervention of the Chief Minister. The IPS and IAS officers were backbone of the country and running such vendetta campaigns would demoralise the entire police force. How would terrorism be tackled if such things happened later?, Amarinder asked.

Asked if he apprehended more arrests Amarinder said “ask Badal and Sukhbir”.

Punjab government violated every section of the law while arresting Virk. The government sought no prior permission from either the Union Home Ministry or the Maharashtra government while arresting the IPS officer, he said. Virk is a Maharashtra cadre IPS officer.

‘Virk came to the state when terrorism was at peak. “ He served the country very loyally and fought terrorism”, Amarinder added.

[lsingh]

Virkspeak

Probe all ‘cats’, why only mine: Virk

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 11

Arrested DGP S.S. Virk today opened his heart out on the issue of “cats”, militant-turned informers, while challenging the Punjab government to “show guts” and probe the other police officers who adopted similar means. Indirectly, he named a few informers and went on to explain the alleged land deals, the timing of his arrest and the behaviour of the arresting party. Cats are a reality and cannot be written off now

Saini is exposing the very people who helped the police fight terrorism

I am paying the price of not being a turncoat

Arrest timed to scuttle a move of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to re-instate me

The Tribune managed to speak to Virk despite a ring of policemen around him. Virk claimed that the entire case against him was fabricated and said, “I am paying the price of not being a turncoat as several other officers did and sided with SAD in the run-up to the elections.”

On keeping “cats”, Virk said, “Whatever I did was in line with my duty. I was a middle-level official and part of the system fighting militants while the policies were made by the seniors.” All officers during those times had their own sets of “cats”, claimed Virk while asking the government to find the real identity of police inspector Gurmit Pinki. Also, who got him recruited in the police. But Virk stopped short of naming any more persons, saying that he would never reveal the names of militants who turned informers or were rehabilitated.

“Cats are a reality and cannot be written off now, but action is not being taken against all officers, why me alone?” said Virk.

He alleged, “Sumedh Singh Saini is an erratic chap and now he has exposed the national strategy to fight terror. Just to harm me, Saini is exposing the very people who helped the police fight terrorism.”

However, Virk said his arrest was not possible without the consent of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Virk alleged that Saini held a personal grudge against him saying “differences had cropped up between us after Saini arrested journalist Gautam Dheer in a case”. The media had reacted sharply and Dheer had to be freed while the investigation was taken away from Saini.

Not colony, but cooperative society

On the case of colonisation against him, Virk said it was not colonisation, but a cooperative society in which more than 50 IPS and IAS officers are members. Since owning a house in Chandigarh was impossible, a piece of land was purchased in Dera Bassi. Virk alleged, “Among the initiators of the project was Surinder Pal Singh, now SSP Vigilance, and the investigating officer (IO) in my case.”

He said his property shown in Kasauli could be taken by the government as “it is not mine” and added that he had informed the government of all other purchases.

“But why not check, did all officers inform the government of the purchases they made?” he asked

Virk claimed that his arrest had been timed to scuttle a move of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to re-instate him. The Punjab police was keeping tabs on the developments and ensured that the arrest was made before the MHA could issue the orders.

On reports in a section of the media that SSP Vigilance, Patiala, Shiv Kumar, has shown some disrespect to him, Virk said, “It is incorrect. All men have been addressing me with due respect and nobody, including Shiv Kumar, had show an iota of disrespect at any point of time.”

Meanwhile, sources said Shiv Kumar had an exchange of words with former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh when he went to the PGI yesterday, chiding him that Virk did not even heed the words of the former CM during his tenure. A source said Shiv Kumar even reminded the former CM how Virk had tuned down specific requests sent by Amarinder Singh. The latter retaliated by saying that he did not want to enter into an argument.

Shiv Kumar then went on to remind Amarinder Singh that the police only obeyed the orders of the incumbent Chief Minister and claimed that it he who arrested former chief of the Punjab Public Service Commission Ravi Sidhu at the orders of Amarinder.

Vigilance to wait till Virk’s discharge

Prabhjot Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 11

Who is TRR? This abbreviation, probably used to refer to a businessman, figures prominently in diaries and handwritten documents recovered from the briefcase of DGP Sarabdeep Singh Virk.

Vigilance suspects that this abbreviation stands for TR Reddy, a Pune-based friend of Sarabdeep Singh Virk, with whom he has substantial business and financial dealings.

Diaries and other handwritten notes also mention names of several Punjab VIPs, including politicians, police officers and several civil servants, with whom either Virk or his family had any financial or business transactions between 2000 and 2007.

Vigilance, which earlier in the day requested the court to remand Virk in judicial custody because of his ill health, maintains that it will wait for him to be discharged from the hospital for further questioning and interrogation.

Though a huge bunch of keys was recovered from his briefcase, the decision to open his bank lockers was deferred till “he is able to join prove.”

Though the registration of a case against DGP Virk has created ripples both in political and administrative circles, yet no one could doubt the honesty and integrity of the Vigilance chief Sumedh Singh Saini and his team which made the arrest from Maharashtra Bhavan in the Capital without anyone getting a wind of it.

While scanning through pages of one of the diaries, investigators have not only noticed routine entries, including money spent at a departmental store or at gas stations, but also entries which corroborate statements of bank accounts of the family members of the DGP.

Counter-foils of cheque deposits, recovered from his briefcase, also reveal that various financial transactions were made for the purchase and investments in property. For example, recorded on the backside of a counter foil of a cheque deposit slip says it was payment for the sale of plot number 8 at Zirakpur. One A. Minocha gave the cheque. Another cheque deposit foil is about payment for plot no 79 and cheque was from some M. Gupta.

Documents also indicate a sum of Rs 50 lakh was given as advance to Vijay Pal Singh Dimpy for purchase of land. These counter foils and payments pertain to the account of Jaswinder Kaur Virk.

While vigilance sources promise fair investigation in case of VIPs figuring prominently in the diary and handwritten documents, a few of them have reportedly gone underground fearing action.

One entry of 26 January, 2000, says “Paid 3.5 to Yash Sharma towards plot payment (16+8+10+3.5) = 16+21.5 = 37.5. On January 30, diary reads, went to Pune by IC 849 (Indian Airlines flight) and paid 3.00 to TRR (total 40.50).

Calculations made on a piece of paper recovered from the briefcase make interesting revelations. On this piece of paper, price per square yard of land measuring 15 acres has been worked out at Rs 275 suggesting that a kanal would go for Rs 4,37,500 and 70 one-kanal plots from 15 acres would go for Rs 4.17 crore against their purchase price of Rs 2.70 crore.

The purchase cost has been mentioned as Rs 18 lakh per acre. Immediate payment, it says is Rs 40.50 lakh (15 per cent) followed by second instalment of 35 per cent (Rs 94.50 lakh) and remaining 50 per cent after six months.

Another handwritten page gives details of A and B accounts of “self, J.V., Jasleen Kaur and Pradeep plus accounts in Citi Bank, SBI, SV, saying “put in names of JV, self, Jasleen and Sarabdeep in FD (4.00) each and fix loan limit of 3.00 each.

Amarinder’s statement on ‘cats’ absurd, says Mann

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 11

Terming the statement of former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on the issue of “cats” as absurd and preposterous, president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) Simranjit Singh Mann today said such a person, who had also been a Member of Parliament, was expected to express an opinion within reason, logic, law of the country and its Constitution.

Mann said, “The Indian Constitution vide Article 21 states that no person will be deprived of his life and liberty without the procedure laid down by law. Our party asked Amarinder under what law the state gave S. S. Virk, J. Ribeiro, K.P.S. Gill and the police a right to create “cats” in the state by killing innocent persons and then giving them (cats) fake names?”

Taking anyone's life by the state was the duty of a law court, Mann added in a statement sent through e-mail.

In the name of fighting terrorism, certain police officials were given a carte blanche to amass wealth and properties disproportionate to their known sources of income.

[chatanga]

so the mighty are beginning to fall on thier own swords.....

[S1ngh]

Virk... Spill the beans of your superiors during 80's...

I am pretty much sure that they gonna rescue him for the safety of their own..

[mann_kaum_layee_qurbaan]

captain, that house negro.