Amritsar exporter alleges slain encounter specialist demanded money for saving him from a false drug bust in 2005

'Rajbir Singh framed me for Rs 50 lakh'

Amritsar exporter alleges slain encounter specialist demanded money for saving him from a false drug bust in 2005

'I am innocent': Devender Singh has asked the court to order a narco-analysis to prove his claim that he has been framed by the Delhi policeu00a0pic/MiD DAY

The slain assistant commissioner of police's team caught Devender Singh, a known exporter of dry fruits, in 2005 from Anupam restaurant in Munirka. Five and a half kilograms of cocaine was allegedly seized from the Amritsar-based businessman's possession.

Drug syndicate
The prosecution alleged Devender was part of an international drug syndicate. However, for all these years, the charges could not be proved.
Devender's counsel Manish Khanna said: "The police have been giving self-contradictory statements in court. No clinching evidence has been given so far to prove the charges of my client's alleged links with an international drug syndicate."
Khanna moved the Delhi High Court to demand a narco-analysis or lie detector test on his client but the court told him to proceed with the plea in a trial court.

No narco
However, the police are averse to the idea with the prosecution opposing the truth serum and brain mapping tests on Devender.
The businessman alleged that the former encounter specialist framed him because he refused to pay Rs 50 lakh as extortion money.

"If my client is really a part of an international drug syndicate, why are the police not agreeing to do a narco test on him. They would be able to extract the truth from him and bust the entire racket. But, it seems they are afraid of being exposed," Khanna said.

Contradictions
The case papers, copies of which are with MiD DAY, revealed that the police have indeed been giving self-contradictory statements regarding the arrest of Devender.

A head constable, who testified in the case, told the court that there was a petrol pump near the south Delhi restaurant from where Devender was arrested. However, there was no petrol pump near the spot of arrest. There was a water pump near Anupam restaurant and the police later admitted the contradiction.
One of the officials, who were part of the raiding team that took the seized contraband, had claimed that he was standing at a distance of 20-25 yards away from the spot where the arrest took place and yet he could not see anything.

"The police official told the court that nothing was obstructing his view though but he was standing at a distance. There was light at the place of arrest. If we accept his argument, they why couldn't he see anything," asked Devender's counsel.

The next hearing in the case is on February 18.

Murder bulletin

The Central Bureau of Investigation is probing the mysterious murder of the slain Assistant Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Rajbir Singh. The theory that Singh was killed by a property dealer friendu00a0-- Sunil Bhardwaj -- at his office in Gurgaon on March 20 with a missing police revolver is yet to be contradicted.
In his confession, Bhardwaj, 42, had said he killed Singh with a .32 bore revolver that the senior police official himself had lent him three days earlier.
Rajbir's wife however, insisted that Bhardwaj was no friend of her late husband and he had never talked about him.
The CBI had filed a chargesheet against Bhardwaj in an Ambala court and found that during a gun battle in Bhiwani in Haryana, a deputy superintendent of police had reportedly lost his weapon. The same weapon was used in Singh's murder.

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