BHOPAL: Guna district Police superintendent Ankit Soni was removed from his post on Sunday evening, following directions from Madhya Pradesh chief minister Dr Mohan Yadav.
The IPS officer’s role was termed 'inappropriate' in the alleged manipulation of cash recovered during a recent search operation in the northern MP district.
The action against the 2017-batch IPS officer came a few hours after four cops associated with the Dharanwada police station and the Ruthiyai police outpost of Guna district were suspended in the same matter, based on the findings of a primary probe conducted by DIG-Gwalior Amit Sanghi.
While Soni has been removed from his post and deployed as an assistant IG (AIG) at the state PHQ in Bhopal, his batchmate Hitika Vatsal (who was posted as the Commandant of the 15th SAF Battalion in Indore) will be the new SP of Guna district.
Four Madhya Pradesh police personnel, including a police station in-charge, were suspended on Sunday, in the wake of reports about them having first stopped an SUV from Gujarat carrying Rs one lakh ‘unexplained cash,’ and later releasing the vehicle and cash, taking Rs 20 lakh as a bribe to settle the issue.
The SUV was taken to the Ruthiyai police outpost first, but instead of reporting the matter to the district police higher officials and the income tax department, the cops released the vehicle.
The concerned Gujarat-based businessman, who is reportedly into spice trade, shared the entire development later with an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer posted in Gujarat, who subsequently informed it to the police higher-ups in MP’s Guna district, following which the Rs 20 lakh kept back as settlement by the concerned cop was returned.
Following a primary on-the-spot enquiry conducted by Deputy Inspector General of police (DIG-Gwalior) Amit Sanghi in the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday, the four police personnel posted in Guna district, including Dharnawada police station in-charge Prabhat Khare, Ruthiyai police outpost in-charge Sajid Hussain, head constable Devendra Sikarwar and constable-cum-driver Sunder Raman, were put under suspension after their conduct in the entire matter was found suspicious and inappropriate.
The enquiry had been ordered by the State’s DGP Kailash Makwana, after which IG-Gwalior Arvind Saxena sent the DIG-Gwalior Amit Sanghi to Guna district to conduct the on-the-spot preliminary probe.
Based on the primary probe findings, a detailed departmental enquiry has been instituted, which will be conducted by a young IPS rank officer posted in the adjoining Shivpuri district.
Informed sources also claimed that the concerned businessman had also raised the issue with a powerful politician in Gujarat.
“The Guna district police superintendent Ankit Soni (it was his first posting as SP of any district), not just failed to act against the concerned police personnel, but also didn’t bring the entire matter to the notice of his superiors, DIG-Gwalior or IG-Gwalior, which actually went against him,” a senior state police officer said.
However, with the entire matter coming into the public domain, the State’s DGP Kailash Makwana directed the IG-Gwalior to get it probed properly, after which DIG-Gwalior was sent to Guna district for the primary probe on Saturday late at night.
“Primary probe has revealed that action in accordance with law wasn’t carried out in the matter. The investigations so far prima facie suggest that the conduct of the concerned police personnel was not in accordance with the law. The desired action, which should have been initiatedd wasn’t taken, owing to which there ia s need for a more in-depth probe, which has been instituted. Four concerned cops have been immediately put under suspension, and a detailed enquiry will further establish the matter in entirety,” DIG-Gwalior Amit Sanghi told TNIE on Sunday.
According to a senior state police official, if the concerned individual (Gujarat-based businessman) files a formal complaint in the matter, then a criminal case could also be registered against the four suspended cops.
While the four cops now face a detailed departmental probe in the matter, if the entire matter turns out to be true in its entirety, it could be a re-run of a similar incident in Seoni district of the State, which happened in October 2025.
As many as 15 persons, including 13 cops, among them two deputy SP-rank officers (one of whom is a woman officer), were arrested in October-November 2025, in connection with allegedly pocketing around Rs 1.5 lakh cash out of the Rs 2.96 crore hawala money being taken for a Maharashtra-based trader in an SUV from Katni (MP) to Nagpur (Maharashtra).