Multi-crore heist: Court declares suspended IPS officer Dheeraj Setia proclaimed offender

PTI, Feb 18, 2022, 7:47 PM IST

Image source: Tribune India

A court here on Friday declared three people, including a suspended senior police official, in a multi-crore heist as proclaimed offenders.

Additional Sessions Judge Amit Sehrawat also ordered attachment of the properties of the trio — gangster Vikas Lagarpuria, suspended IPS officer Dheeraj Setia and Chetan Maan — under CrPC section 83.

”Intimation in this regard be sent to the SHO of the concerned police station as well as DCP, (HQ), Gurugram. Further proceedings be also initiated against these accused persons. Surender Kumar, DSP, STF, Gurugram is directed to provide the details of the properties of these accused on the next date of hearing so that court may initiate the proceedings under Section 83 CrPC,” read the court order.

The Special Task Force (STF) had moved an appeal in the court to declare the trio proclaimed offenders.

Meanwhile, Setia’s counsel Ajay Kumar Verma moved an application in the court to not pass any adverse order against the suspended IPS officer as he had applied for anticipatory bail before the Punjab and Haryana High Court as well as another petition under CrPC section 482 for quashing the orders passed in the present proceedings.

However, the court denied it, highlighting that the High Court has not passed any stay order with regard to the present proceedings and the proclamation of the accused Dheeraj Kumar Setia has already been affixed at his address.

The incident dates back to August 4 last year when gangster Lagarpuriya’s men broke into a flat from where the office of a private company was being run. They had decamped with crores of rupees in cash. According to the charge sheet filed by the STF, the theft could be of around Rs 30-40 crore.

The key accused in the theft case, Sachinder Jain Nawal, had alleged that he had given gold, cash, and currency in US dollars, worth Rs 2.5 crore, to Setia to hush up the case as he was posted as the Gurgaon DCP. However, according to Nawal, Setia later returned the money and gold, but kept a few thousand dollars.