Commander, accused in home guard scam, surrenders

A company commander, who had been absconding after being named in the home guard scam, surrendered in a Lucknow court on Monday evening.

The commander Sushil Singh had been evading arrest after his name surfaced in the scam along with district commandant Kripa Shanker Pandey.

The police also arrested block organizer Raj Kumar Verma, two ranks below Pandey.

SHO Gomti Nagar, Amit Dubey, who is conducting the probe, said that Raj Kumar Verma was arrested from his residence in Viram Khand, Gomti Nagar on late Monday evening.

"He was in-charge of deploying home guards at seven police stations - Gomti Nagar, Vibhuti Khand, Indira Nagar, Gudamba, Bakshi-Ka-Talab, Madiaon, and Itaunja. The home guards on duty at these police stations had to report to Raj Kumar Verma as he was their reporting officer. We have seized documents of the attendance of home guards in these police stations and subordinates of Kumar are also under the scanner," the SHO said.

Police teams are also conducting raids to arrest subordinates of Pandey at district home guards office in Lucknow.

The police had earlier seized documents from district home guard office and muster rolls from Vibhuti Khand and Gudamba police stations which were sent to forensic science laboratory (FSL) to check for tampering.IANS