SI suspended for trying to ‘smuggle’ four to Canada

As the Punjab Police team reached the IGI airport in New Delhi on August 2,the four — Taranjit Singh (25),Jasvinder Singh (30),Hardip Singh and Lakhbir Singh,both 26 years old — were arrested by the Delhi Police after a tip-off from the Punjab Police. Booked in cases of fraud and criminal conspiracy,they told the police that Lakhvinder had taken Rs 12 lakh from each of them and provided them with visas,promising to help them reach Canada.

Lakhwinder was also booked,but he managed to board the flight to Canada. The Delhi Police have sent look-out notices to all airports. While 13 players of the 16-member team are back winning 50 medals in the competition,others are scheduled to return on August 22. However, there is no word whether the accused is coming back.

H R Chadha,Additional Director General of Police (Punjab Armed Police),said,“We have suspended the officer and ordered a departmental inquiry. He forged the documents and tried to take these four to Canada showing them as players of Punjab Police.”

In 2005,four members of the river rafting team of the Punjab Police had gone missing in the USA. While one of them returned home,two sent applications for leave from there and four went missing.

There have been several cases of people illegally migrating to the US and Canada from Punjab,often as members of sporting teams or theatre groups. Five members of a women’s cricket team from Jalandhar had disappeared during an England tour in 2003,two of which later returned.