Kovai woman cop pinches from stolen gold, held

Coimbatore

Police said Swapna Suja, 40, a constable in Singanallur police station was assigned the task of handing over recovered stolen jewels to owners after producing them in the court.

She however failed to hand over about 60 sovereigns of recovered gold jewels to the owners linked to over 11 cases, including incidents of chain snatchings and theft. As her modus operandi came to light, Inspector Siva Kumar was appointed as an investigation officer to inquire into the case. However, the tainted cop failed to co-operate in the probe and went into hiding.

Following this, the Coimbatore City Police Commissioner Sumit Saran placed her under suspension in February and a search was launched to nab her. Meanwhile, Swapna Suja moved the High Court seeking to cancel her suspension order. However, the court issued an order to the cop to appear before City Police Commissioner Sumit Saran for an inquiry in connection with the issue. Yet, she failed to honour the court order and further went for an appeal. Based on the directions of the commissioner, Inspector Sangeetha lodged a cheating complaint against Swapna Suja with the crime branch police. Then a police team arrested the cop from her residence in Ondipudur on Tuesday night.

Curiously, the arrested cop was appreciated by a Judicial Magistrate, who also presented her with a memento for helping to clear a huge backlog of pending court cases a year ago. The accused was produced in court and lodged in Coimbatore Central Prison on Wednesday.