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Dust has hardly settled on the case of thrashing of a colonel and his son by cops in Patiala, that yet another controversy has raised its head after the arrest of a ‘high profile’ woman cop with connections in higher echelons of power.

 

The plot looks straight out of some spicy ‘pulp-fiction’ film. Sex, sleaze, dirt and drugs - it is not a fictional plot, but a story doing rounds in Punjab after Punjab Police personnel recently nabbed one of its own woman cops, Amandeep Kaur, a senior head constable posted in Bathinda, allegedly with 17 gram of heroin.

 

Amandeep is like any other cop in the Punjab Police, who was allegedly victimised and intimidated in the beginning of her career. She was reportedly frequently transferred from one place to another without any apparent reason. Coming from an economically poor family background, she did not have any godfathers.

 

As she tried to “fight for justice” against her victimisation, she came in contact with some senior officers, who came forward to help her. Some of them reportedly became “friendly” with her. With easy access to some senior officers, including those from the Indian Police Service, she reportedly started to “work” on her own terms and conditions. Even her current posting was reportedly in some police hospital, where she worked as a nurse. She allegedly used to wear an apparel (white gown) also and check even the blood pressure of patients.

 

What was intriguing was her lavish lifestyle. After initial years of “harassment and intimidation” in the service, she settled down well after having managed to “befriend” some senior and influential officers.

 

She is alleged to have started trading in synthetic drugs, called ‘chitta’ in local parlance for the white colour of the substance. Within a short span of time, she reportedly built a spacious house with all modern facilities, besides owning an SUV and a motorcycle. She also brandished ultra-luxury watches of Rado and Rolex brands. She would do it publicly and post her pictures on the micro-blogging site Instagram, which is quite popular among the youth.

 

Despite being in the uniformed service, she used to regularly post her private activities on Instagram. She reportedly had about 30,000 followers till the time of her arrest. After that, her followers increased by about 10,000 within two days.

 

The police have reportedly seized the two I-phones she was carrying at the time of her arrest. On the fateful day, when her vehicle was stopped by the cops she reportedly dropped the name of a senior IPS officer and wanted the cops (who stopped her for checking) to speak to him. When the cops refused to talk to anyone, she reportedly put the phone on speaker mode. All this was being recorded by the cops, while she was desperately trying to make the particular officer influence them.

 

However, the officer did not intervene, although he had taken her call. During the search of her vehicle, the police allegedly seized 17 grams of heroin, as was widely reported in the media.

 

Amandeep was reportedly trapped on the tip-off provided by a woman, whose husband was allegedly having a relationship with her. Before her arrest, the police reportedly followed her activities very closely and eventually trapped her. Senior police officers have so far ruled out any “close” link between the woman cop and the senior officer about the alleged drug peddling. At best, the officers maintain the particular IPS officer may have known her. They maintain the woman cop reportedly used her ‘closeness’ with the officer to influence the lower rung police officials, which is a common practice among the junior officials.

 

Amandeep’s is not the first case where a cop has been found to be allegedly involved in drug trafficking. There have been several others who have even been jailed. One senior police officer, Raj Jit Singh, who has served as SSP in different districts in the state, was dismissed by the Punjab government last year and an FIR was registered against him. He is still absconding. Another police inspector Inderjeet Singh is in police custody in a drug-related case. A former Deputy Superintendent of Police Jagdish Bhola, also a former international wrestler, has been convicted in a drug peddling case and is currently undergoing a jail term.

 

For the Punjab government in general and the Punjab Police in particular, Amandeep’s case could not have come at a worse time. The state government claims to have launched a “war on drugs” campaign, called, “nashiyan virudh, yudh” and has made several arrests. It has also demolished houses of several drug peddlers during the last one month. At the same time, one of its own woman cops was nabbed allegedly with heroin. For face-saving, the police and government can claim that they did not spare anyone, including their own cop, but the fact is that there have been widespread allegations in the past that some of its personnel were involved in peddling drugs. There may be some aberrations like Amandeep, but to brush the entire police force as complicit in drug trade would mean being grossly unfair to the police.

 

Faced with the challenges of organised crime being carried out by gangsters and drug peddling, some controversies have dogged the Punjab Police at a wrong time. Before Amandeep’s case, the Punjab Police was faced with the allegations of some of its cops having beaten up a Colonel and his son in Patiala. The Punjab and Haryana High Court has transferred the probe from the Punjab Police to the Union Territory of Chandigarh Police. 

 

The opposition, Congress, has been demanding an independent probe by a neutral agency, saying that the Punjab Police cannot be allowed to investigate charges against itself. Leader of the Opposition in Punjab assembly, Partap Singh Bajwa has demanded a probe by the National Investigation Agency, claiming that it was the issue of national security also, since the drugs are allegedly smuggled in from abroad. He apprehended that the Punjab Police may try to hush up the matter since several big names are involved in the matter. There has been no version from Amandeep about the allegations against her, since she remains in police custody. Her lawyers too have spoken nothing about the case yet.