7 cops sacked for graft after sting by senior

Seven constables in Madhya Pradesh were removed from service on Friday after they were caught on camera taking bribes from transporters in a sting operation held last year. The sting operation, interestingly, was carried out by the state police themselves.

Two constables attached to the office of then DIG Kharegone Vipin Maheshwari, along with a police videographer, were deputed to film policemen taking bribes on a 50-km stretch on the Agra-Mumbai Highway. They had boarded a truck carrying cattle for a video footage of cops asking for bribes and issuing tokens to transporters for paying them (so they were not harassed again at the next point).

Maheshwari said he had also recommended action against the then Badwani SP Dineshchandra Sharma and two others, including an SDOP. “There was no direct evidence against the senior officials, but they had failed to check the corruption on the highway,” he said.

Maheshwari decided to carry out the sting operation after complaints continued to pour in despite his instructions to the senior officers. The three travelled twice on the route without a camera and then carried one on their third trip. Badwani SP Praveen Mathur, who issued the removal orders, said the sting was followed by an inquiry and a detailed departmental inquiry.