Panipat, March 16 (IANS) Seven of the eight members of the Special Task Force (STF), set up to tackle criminals in Haryana, who were arrested after being caught on camera trying to extort money from a jeweller here, were sent by a local court to police remand till March 20, police said Tuesday.
However, police will present STF chief Ashok Sheoran, an additional superintendent of police, in court Wednesday.

Police arrested Sheoran and seven other members - three assistant sub-inspectors and four constables - of the STF late Monday night after they were caught on camera trying to extort money from a jeweller here.

“We have booked all the eight accused under various sections including that of conspiracy, dacoity and possessing illegal arms. We have got police remand of seven accused till March 20 while Sheoran will be presented in court tomorrow (Wednesday),” investigating officer Rajinder Singh, who is also the district police chief, told IANS Tuesday evening.

“During the interrogation, the accused told police that Sheoran was also involved with them and record of his call details reinforced our suspicion on him,” Singh said.

Earlier, the eight accused surrendered before police Monday.

“At that time, we had taken them in for interrogation but later we formally arrested them. We have proof they were in Panipat on the day of the crime. We are verifying their (mobile) call records and details of their activities of the past few months,” a police official told IANS.

According to the jeweller, the STF men came to his shop in the industrial city of Panipat, 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 men who had taken the money from him also.

The police have directed the STF to stop their operations till the completion of the inquiry.

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 his weapon 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.