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Gurugram: The authorities on Friday ordered the suspension of an IPS officer who was posted in Gurugram as DCP (south), two days after he was named as one of the accused in a multi-crore heist within the metropolis. Accused Dheeraj Sethia has already been served two notices by the Haryana special task force (STF), which is probing the case. A team of officers had also visited his official residence in Gurugram on Wednesday but found him missing. Cash amounting to several crores was allegedly stolen from two flats owned by the developer of a Sector 84 residential society in August this year. Till now, investigators have found the trail of around Rs 22 crore and suspect the stolen amount could be much more.
“IPS Dheeraj Sethia, currently posted as a commandant in the Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) at Rohtak’s Sunaria, has been suspended with immediate effect. During the period of suspension, his headquarters will be the DGP office in Panchkula,” read the suspension letter issued by Rajeev Arora, Haryana additional chief secretary (home) on Friday, according to TOI.
At the time of the crime, Sethia was posted in Gurugram as DCP (South) and was holding additional charge of DCP (crime) when crime branch of Gurugram police was probing the matter. During a bureaucratic reshuffle a few weeks ago, he was posted as the Kurukshetra SP. He was again shunted to the IRB recently after his name cropped up in the probe.
In the meantime, the case was handed over to STF, which in November arrested Two doctors who allegedly informed a gangster about the cash and helped plan and execute the crime. It also recovered around Rs 3.9 crore from their possession. In their disclosure statements, the doctors claimed they paid Sethia Rs 3.5 crore in cash and gold bullion as bribes. Later, Sethia allegedly kept Rs 20 lakh and returned the remaining money and gold.
The STF then submitted the disclosure statements in court earlier this month. In an order issued on December 2, Gurugram additional sessions judge Jasbir Singh observed, “From the… disclosure statement of accused Dr Suchinder Kumar Jain Naval, it is clear he has given illegal gratification to DCP Dheeraj Setia for hushing up the matter. He (Naval) also disclosed having delivered huge amounts in the form of gold, dollars etc… to DCP for said purpose. From perusal of the police file, I have not found any concrete step taken for taking the investigation to its logical conclusion on the basis of the disclosures. As such, the investigating agency has failed to perform its statutory duty with utmost care, especially when involvement of a senior police officer has come on record.”
The court further observed, “Delay in proceeding further against the police officer on the basis of the disclosure statement of Dr Naval is nothing but to give time to said police officer to destroy evidence… As such, the investigating agency is not conducting a probe in a proper way. For that purpose, this court, in exercise of its power… is hereby opting for monitoring investigation to ensure that search for truth is not muddied by police lapses, whether innocent or blameworthy.”
STF then issued notices to Sethia to join the probe. After Sethia went incommunicado, STF on Wednesday added his name and sections of the Anti-Corruption Act and Section 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) of IPC to the existing FIR of theft registered at Kherki Daula police station in August.
Initially, a theft was reported to the police on August 21 by an employee of a company looking after the maintenance of a residential society in Gurgaon’s Sector 84. In the FIR registered at Kherki Daula police station, the complainants stated they had “collected money from customers for services rendered to them and kept it at the office”. The complainant said when they wanted to deposit the money in a bank on August 20, they found it had been stolen from the office.
In the initial FIR, the amount of money stolen was not mentioned. The police later said that as per a supplementary statement by the complainants, Rs 50 lakh was stolen on the night of August 3 from residents of a flat in the society.
Till now, investigators have found the trail of around Rs 22 crore and suspect the stolen amount could be much more.
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