Thaindian News

Jaipur, May 16 (IANS) A senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer in Rajasthan was Monday sent to two days’ police remand in connection with the killing of criminal Dara Singh five years ago, an official said.

Inspector General A. Ponnuchami, a 1991 batch officer who was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Sunday, was presented before a special CBI court in Jaipur Monday.

“We will interrogate him in custody and we will try to gather more information about the case,” a CBI official said.

Ponnuchami’s counsel told IANS that the CBI demanded a five-day police remand, but was granted only two days.

He is one of the two IPS officers accused in the case in which Dara Singh was allegedly killed in a staged shootout by a special operations group (SOG) team of Rajasthan Police on the outskirts of Jaipur Oct 23, 2006.

Besides Ponnuchami, Additional Director General (ADG) of Police A.K. Jain is also an accused in the case and CBI sources claimed he also might be arrested soon.

The CBI had called Ponnuchami and A.K. Jain to its Jaipur office for questioning Sunday. While Ponnuchami turned up and was arrested, Jain did not come. The CBI conducted searches Sunday evening, but the ADG could not be found. He is likely to be arrested soon.

The CBI has already arrested four policemen - inspectors Nisar Khan and Naresh Sharma, assistant sub-inspector Surendra Singh and sub-inspector Satyanarayan Godara - in the case.

A court had issued warrants against seven other policemen - Rajesh Choudhary, Subash Godara, Zulfikar, Arvind, Badri Prasad, Jagraj and Sardar Singh.

Sources said the CBI is trying to prove that Singh’s killing was a fall-out of rivalry between two gangs of the liquor mafia, one of which had the patronage of a BJP leader.

Informed police officials said the BJP leader was also under the purview of the agency’s probe.

Sikar remained the den of Dara Singh until he was gunned down by the SOG team on the outskirts of the state capital. His widow registered a case at Mansarovar police station in Jaipur against four police officers, including A.K. Jain and A. Ponnuchami, and alleged that the shootout was staged.

The Supreme Court in the first week of January slammed the CBI for slow pace of investigations and directed it to submit a status report in the case.