On the evening of the 1st of January, Gautam Budh Nagar SSP (Superintendent of Police) Vaibhav Krishna, organized a press conference in Noida, where he referred to a ‘sensitive report’ that makes a few serious allegations of corruption amongst the upper echelons of the Uttar Pradesh Police.

नोएडा SSP के मुताबिक RSS के कार्यकर्ता यूपी में ट्रांसफर पोस्टिंग का बड़ा रैकेट चला रहे हैं… pic.twitter.com/p9Xo90D6oj

— Anurag Dhanda (@anuragdhanda) January 3, 2020

The press conference was conducted to counter the spread of certain ‘obscene’ videos featuring the SSP from Noida, that he said were an “organised attempt” to dent his image.

He said that the videos were doctored and a part of a larger conspiracy to tarnish his image after his team exposed certain serious criminal cases recently.

But as a response to the Noida SSP’s press conference on Wednesday, the Uttar Pradesh DGP (Director General of Police), OP Singh convened another press conference on Friday, 3rd January, informing that the Vaibhav Krishna had been sent a notice and asked to introspect if he had defied his service rules by leaking out details of the ‘sensitive report’.

The report in question has leaked several particulars of a ‘bribes-for-posting’ racket being run in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

The discovery of the alleged ‘bribes-for-posting’ scam took place when four people claiming to be journalists were arrested in Noida and Lucknow. An investigation into the arrested persons’ text messages and conversations revealed that huge amounts of money ranging between Rs 50 to Rs 80 lakh were being offered to seek plum posts and desirable transfers between police stations.

The Noida SSP had penned all of his findings in a letter to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath three times in 2019.

The letter, written on the basis of a report, was filed by the Cyber Emergency Response Team (CERT). It not only explicitly names the officers involved in the racket with impostor-journalists, but also states that these postings and transfers were being done in cohorts with Atul Shukla, a worker from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The ‘journalists’ who have been arrested – Sushil Pandit, Udit Goel, Chandan Rai, and Nitish Pandey have been booked under the Gangsters Act and the Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act and are still in jail. There is another person implicated – Raman Thakur, but he is yet to be incarcerated.

Raman Thakur, Sushil Pandit, and Udit Goel have also been named in a bribery and extortion case filed in January 2018, where Sector 20’s SHO (Station House Officer) Manoj Pant was also arrested. Pant was caught red-handed accepting Rs 8 lakh as bribe inside the police station to tweak an FIR (First Information Report).

The most striking part of the letter to the UP CM is that it names five IPS officers who are supposedly involved hand-in-glove with the scamsters.

IPS Officers Implicated

Ajaypal Sharma, Superintendent of Police Rampur

According to the report on 28 August 2019, an FIR was registered against 5 impostor-journalists four of whom, excluding Raman Thakur, have been arrested for coordinating gang members as journalists.

A mobile CDR (call detail record) investigation found that IPS Ajaypal Sharma was in touch with the accused.

Two audio recordings of the conversation between the accused Chandan Rai and Ajaypal Sharma were found. It was revealed through those recordings that Rs 80 lakh was taken for his posting in Meerut.

Rai also spoke to RSS worker Atul Shukla about Ajaypal’s posting.

Sudhir Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police Ghaziabad

The report states that SMS details were found from the mobile phone of Chandan Rai in which Sudhir Singh is being asked by him to give the charge of Sihani Gate Ghaziabad Police Station to another inspector named Sanjay Verma.

However, these claims have been rejected by SSP Ghaziabad Sudhir Kumar Singh. He has said that he has never had any chat with Rai.

Ganesh Saha, Superintendent of Police Banda

Again, from investigating the SMS details of Chandan Rai’s mobile phone, a chat with SP Banda revealed that the officer was ready to meet the accused and discuss the terms on which he would allow the passage of certain ‘trucks’.

Rajiv Narayan Mishra, former Superintendent of Police Kushinagar

The report has detailed the conversation on WhatsApp between the then Superintendent of Police Kushinagar and the accused Nitish Pandey. Their conversation was mainly about getting a constable named Anil Tiwari posted to Kushinagar for a month. Despite the ‘constable’ being involved in criminal activities, the demand of such manner was made, the report stated.

Himanshu, Superintendent of Police Sultanpur

According to the report, details of WhatsApp chats and audio recordings between Atul Shukla and Chandan Rai have been collected that deal with the transfer of IPS Himanshu. The report states the amount of Rs 30 lakh, Rs 40 lakh,and Rs 50 lakh for transferring him to Bijnor, Bareilly, and Agra respectively.

Noida SSP’s ‘Doctored’ Video

The Noida Police on January 1 registered an FIR against unidentified persons for circulating ‘fake’ obscene videos clips of Gautam Budh Nagar senior superintendent of police (SSP) Vaibhav Krishna. The FIR was filed on the same day when the SSP leaked the findings of the sensitive report to the media.

A case has been registered under relevant sections of the IT Act at Sector 20 police station.

The investigation into the videos of Vaibhav Krishna will be handled by the Hapur police.

Additional DGP Alok Kumar, who is also the Inspector General of the Meerut Range said that the probe would be looked after by SP Sanjiv Suman and inspector Avinash Gautam as the investigating officer.

Also Read: Uttar Pradesh Records Highest Number Of Corruption Cases In Midday Meal Scheme