Probe jail warden for corruption,robbery: Court

Additional Sessions Judge Narinder Kumar also asked the Delhi Police Commissioner to probe the role of a sub-inspector who allegedly failed to discharge his duty properly while taking the statement of the complainant.

According to the complainant Yashpal,a warden at the Rohini Jail had taken a bribe of Rs 5 lakh from him in 2009 promising to secure jobs for Yashpal’s two brothers as jail wardens. However,since the jail warden exams for that year were cancelled,Yashpal asked the warden to refund the money. The warden allegedly returned Yashpal his money but later got a man to rob him of it while Yashpal was boarding a train.

As per the complaint,the robbery took place at the Narela Railway Station on June 14,2011. He said that while paying him the money,the warden had introduced him to another young man saying he was a relative. Later,the same same person turned up at the station platform to rob him of the money.

Yashpal said he made a call to the police station and to the warden,who arrived on the spot shortly. The warden told Yashpal to give the police a fabricated version of what had happened and also threatened to kill Yashpal if he revealed the warden’s involvement. The warden allegedly assured him that he would get the money back through other means.

Accordingly,Yashpal first gave a statement at the Narela Police station saying the money was actually meant for his aunt. However,he later a gave a supplementary statement at the police station in Old Delhi Railway station outlining the details of the exchange between him and the warden and his suspicion that the warden had organised the robbery.

ASJ Kumar noted that the sub-inspector who had taken Yashpal’s first statement had not even registered an FIR and this needed to be investigated at a higher level. The judge also noted that despite the complainant writing to the Commissioner of Police,no investigation had been done on the jail warden and only the person who robbed Yashpal had been brought for trial.

“In view of the settled law and from the allegations levelled by the complainant in his statement made before the police and the statement made in Court,this Court finds that the matter needs further investigation as regards role of the jail warden and anyone else involved in commission of crime,” the judge said in his order.

The court instructed police to investigate the case right from the advertisement for the post of jail wardens,details of the cancelled exam and steps taken by the police soon after the registration of Yashpal complaint.

In a separate judgement the court also sentenced Kaptan Singh,the man charged with robbing Yashpal at the station,to seven years in prison.