BHOPAL:Ten police personnel, including a woman Sub-Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP), have been suspended for allegedly misappropriating Rs 1.5 crore out of a total of Rs 2.96 crore in suspected hawala money in Seoni district, Madhya Pradesh.
Nine police personnel — including Arpit Bhairam, the Sub-Inspector and in-charge of Bandol Police Station, two head constables, and six constables — were suspended on Thursday following an order by Inspector General (IG) of Jabalpur Range, Pramod Verma.
Subsequently, on Friday, Director General of Police (DGP) Kailash Makwana ordered the suspension of SDOP Pooja Pandey.
According to a complaint filed by Sohan Parmar, a resident of Nagpur, Maharashtra, he was traveling from Katni (MP) to Jalna (Maharashtra) with Rs 2.96 crore in cash, allegedly belonging to a bullion trader. The amount is suspected to be hawala money.
On the night of October 8–9, a police search team led by SDOP Pooja Pandey and Bandol Police Station in-charge Arpit Bhairam intercepted the vehicle near Sheeladevi Bypass under the jurisdiction of Lakhanwada Police Station. Parmar was detained, and the cash was taken to Bandol Police Station, where he was held overnight.
However, instead of following the due legal procedure for cash seizure, the police reportedly released the vehicle and Parmar the following morning without proper documentation or action. When the bullion trader from Maharashtra learned of the incident, he traveled to Seoni district and was shocked to discover that the official police report only acknowledged the seizure of Rs 1.45 crore — with the remaining Rs 1.5 crore allegedly misappropriated by the involved officers.
Surprisingly, senior police officials, including Seoni Superintendent of Police (SP) Sunil Mehta and IG Jabalpur Zone Pramod Verma, were not informed of the operation by the involved team.
It was Additional SP (ASP) Deepak Mishra who alerted the SP and the IG, prompting an official inquiry. This led to the suspension of the nine personnel, including the police station in-charge. Based on the findings of the SP and IG, DGP Makwana subsequently ordered the suspension of SDOP Pooja Pandey, bringing the total number of suspended officers to ten.
Additional SP (Jabalpur) Ayush Gupta has been appointed to lead the investigation. He arrived in Seoni late Thursday night and has already begun the probe.
Commenting on the incident, Seoni SP Sunil Mehta said, “Action has been taken against the police personnel for failing to properly seize and report approximately Rs 1.45 crore on the night of October 8–9.”