7 cops conned in 8 months

CHANDIGARH: Fraudsters have pinned the biggest scalps to their name: policemen. They fleeced seven of them in the last eight months in the city. A few of their high-profile targets retired as DGP and ADGP. Not only a majority of the victims lost lakhs of rupees, they also suffered a loss of face.
In three of the FIRs, the cops claimed that they were duped on the pretext of providing land to them.The rest of the four complaints related to stealing of vehicles and valuables from houses. Sources told TOI, "The economic offences wing (EOW) is probing three FIRs as the amount of money cheated is more than Rs 20 lakh. The latest trickster to be arrested was Vijay Pal Singh Dimpy. He had duped former DGP SS Virk of Rs 50 lakh." Virk had lodged an FIR against Dimpy alleging he cheated him on January 4.
The victims also included a former officer on special duty (OSD) of a retired DGP of Punjab Police, K K Narula, and two women constables of the Chandigarh police.
But the most bizarre case concerned a DSP rank official of Chandigarh police. He had gone on coffee-drinking sessions with a man posing to be an IPS officer. However, the DSP became suspicious after a few meetings. The fake IPS officer, Ravi Kant, was finally arrested on
February 1. In another interesting case, an FIR was lodged against two Patiala residents for cheating a woman constable after eight months of probe on April 4. The woman cop, Dhanwanti Devi, who resides in Police Colony, Sector 17, alleged Vimla Kalra stole two second-hand cars from her house, causing a loss of Rs 4.23 lakh in October 2013. Kalra is still absconding.
On the other hand, complaints of fraud by two head constables were at the initial stage of investigation with the EOW.
In August 2013, a Panchkula couple, Hardeep Singh and Sonia, cheated a former ADGP rank official of Punjab, R S Chalia, to the tune of Rs 45 lakh.