An assistant sub-inspector has been suspended after home security footage allegedly showed him placing a package beneath a mattress at the Khanna home of Shiv Sena functionary Mahant Kashmir Giri, before a uniformed police team entered the bedroom and seized it.
The footage was publicly released, prompting Punjab Police to order a special investigation team inquiry. Khanna Senior Superintendent of Police Darpan Ahluwalia confirmed that the officer had been suspended with immediate effect and that the drug accused had been discharged.
The SIT will be led by an officer of SP rank and will examine the contents of the packet and all other aspects of the case, Ahluwalia said. A parallel departmental inquiry is also under way to establish the origin of the substance allegedly placed inside the house.
Ahluwalia said accountability was central to Punjab Police’s Yudh Nashean Virudh campaign against drugs, and that the force had a zero-tolerance stance on illegal activity, corruption and misconduct in cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. The investigations will determine how the package came to be inside the residence and whether further action is warranted.
