Bihar cop rewarded for honesty siphons off money

Rewarded for honesty just a fortnight ago for recovering crores of money stolen from an MP’s house, a Bihar cop, consumed by greed, was disgraced with suspension for siphoning off Rs 1,000 as he attempted to pocket the fine he collected from an errant auto driver.

Assistant Sub-Inspector Md Salimuddin spotted an autorickshaw parked in an unauthorised parking zone in Patna’s Ashok Rajpath area. He asked the driver to produce the vehicle’s pollution certificate. When the driver failed, the ASI imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 for not producing pollution certificate and Rs 100 for illegal parking.

Despite collecting Rs 1,100 fine from the auto driver, the ASI only issued receipt for Rs 100, which made the driver complain about the incident to Traffic Superintendent Rajiv Mishra.

Though Salimuddin initially feigned innocence when Mishra enquired about his failure to issue a receipt for Rs 1,000, he relented on being presented with the facts. The Traffic SP suspended him with immediate effect on the charge of siphoning money.

It was Salimuddin who helped Patna police crack the theft/robbery case (cash looted from BJP MP Giriraj Singh’s house) after he detained an auto on Ashok Rajpath and recovered Rs 1.14 crore in cash and ornaments worth lakhs from its occupants.

The Senior SP (SSP) of Patna, Manu Maharaj, had felicitated him with a cash reward of Rs 5000 and praised him for his honesty on July 8.

Perhaps the lure of lucre is too much even for an honest cop.

Courtesy: DHNS