Pb:Former SSP accused of framing official in graft case appears before SIT

Former SSP Shiv Kumar Sharma was today questioned by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in connection with a case pertaining to framing a revenue official in a graft case.

Sharma reached the SP office in the police headquarters here this morning. Members of the Patwari Union had also gathered here, raising slogans against Sharma.

The former SSP was taken to Sadar police station where the SIT questioned him for several hours, officials said.

He was asked to appear again for questioning on August 3.

Sharma later claimed that he was being "victimised" by the ruling regime.

"Neither police officials who arrested the patwari served under me at any time nor did I ask them to nab him," he claimed.

Sharma, along with other Vigilance Bureau officials, was earlier booked under various sections of Indian Penal Code and an SIT was formed to probe the charges.

In 2009, Sharma, the then SSP (Vigilance Bureau) Patiala, had asked patwari Mohan Singh to furnish records related to his land in Fatehargh Sahib's Rurki village.

Mohan had delivered the copy to the SSP and asked him to pay the stipulated government fee of Rs 20.

In the months that followed, the land revenue official alleged that he was threatened, and later implicated in a false corruption case related to a paddy scam in Ferozepur.

Mohan Singh had last year written to Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, demanding a probe into the case.