The district court of Pathankot has summoned five Chandigarh residents including an Inspector of Chandigarh Police, Narinder Patial, and the councillor of ward no 21 of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Chandigarh, Jasbir Singh, to face trial in an alleged case of attempt of extortion of Rs 10 lakh.
The Court of Chandan Hans, JMIC (Judicial Magistrate First Class), issued summons to the accused Jasbir Singh, Patras, Mariam Horo, Narinder Patial (then Station House Officer (SHO) of Sector 11 police station, Chandigarh) and Wasil, all residents of Chandigarh, for August 12, 2022, under sections 384 (extortion), 506 (criminal intimidation) read with Section 511 (attempting to commit offence), 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
The order was passed on a seven-year-old complaint of a Pathankot resident, Ravneet Singh Dhesi, who stated that in May, 2015, his wife living in Chandigarh was in need a domestic help and a security guard, preferably a couple, who would occupy the top floor of her house in Chandigarh. She approached Wasil, a resident of Jharkand, who offered a girl aged about 15-17 years as domestic help. However, Ravneet’s wife refused to appoint the girl. But, on being insisted by Wasil that within a few days he would replace her with a couple, she agreed to hire her for few days. Wasil, then, allegedly took Rs 10,000 as advance and left the girl with Ravneet’s wife. The money was allegedly supposed to be distributed among all the accused.
The accused had also allegedly deputed Patras to collect the money from Ravneet at Pathankot. Ravneet along with others took Patras to the police station at Pathankot, on the pretext of withdrawing money from the bank. Patras was then taken to Ravneet’s residence as they were waiting for the police to come there. However Patras allegedly managed to escape.
The court held, “At this stage, from the testimonies on record, this court is of opinion that there are sufficient grounds to proceed against all accused… Accordingly, all accused are ordered to be summoned to face the trial in the above-said offences… subject to deposit of PF/DM and filing of copy of complaint and list of witnesses by complainant.”
When contacted, Inspector Narinder Patial said, “I have not received any notice, I don’t know anything about it.”
Meanwhile, Jasbir Singh said, “The allegations are completely false. The complainant, Dhesi, is just trying to defame me as I am councillor at UT. I had no links with Inspector Patial and this is a false complaint,” said Jasbir Singh.