UP cop gets MHA official's car scrapped at chowki, suspended

A policeman here was suspended on Tuesday after he and a scrap dealer were found involved in dismantling a car of an Union Home Ministry official at a police post, police said.

The car, which belonged to Arvind Kumar Shrivastava, a Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, had met with an accident in Noida where his wife had come on November 10, 2018, they said.

A routine entry was made about the incident at the local police post in Sector 98 and the damaged car was stationed there under the supervision of the chowki in charge, they said.

"Three days ago, a representative of a car insurance company went to the site but could not find the vehicle and informed Shrivastava, who too made inquiries but could not track his hatchback," an official said.

"He then approached Noida police chief Vaibhav Krishna, who called for a probe by the Sector 39 police station after it emerged that the car had been cut and sold to a scrap dealer at the Sector 98 police chowki," the official said.

On Monday, Senior Superintendent of Police Vaibhav Krishna suspended the chowki in-charge Dinesh Kumar after it was found that he was involved in getting the car cut and sold it to a scrap dealer, a police spokesperson said.

A first information report was lodged against the erring policeman on a complaint by Sector 39 SHO Uday Pratap Singh, the spokesperson said.

Kumar has been booked under Indian Penal Code section 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) and orders have been issued to arrest him, the official said.

SSP Krishna said Kumar had approached him as a "normal citizen" as he assured action against anyone fond violating the law.

"Anybody can approach the police with any complaint even if it is against the department," he told PTI.