MP: On the run for 40 days, crorepati ex-cop finally arrested, 'mysterious diary' comes into focus

Bhopal: The crorepati former traffic constable Sourav Sharma who was on the run for 40 days after his premises were raided by different probe agencies, was finally arrested here on Tuesday.

Sharma was picked up by the Lokayukta police when he was going to the Lokayukta court to surrender, his counsel Rakesh Parasar claimed.

Lokayukta director general of police Jaideep Prasad however said that the police learnt about his presence in Bhopal on Monday and picked him up ‘at a location in Bhopal’ on Tuesday.

“He (Sharma) will be interrogated and then arrested. He will be produced in the court within 24 hours of his arrest”, Mr Prasad said.

According to Sharma’s counsel, he appeared before the Lokayukta court on Monday to surrender. But the court asked him to appear in court on Tuesday after seeking production of necessary documents related to his case from the police.

Sharma was grilled for around five hours by the Lokayukta police and later produced in the court in the evening.

The court proceedings were still in progress till the last reports came.

In another development, the ex-traffic constable’s associate Chetan Singh Gaur in whose car 52 kg of gold and a cash of Rs 11 crore were recovered by the Income Tax (IT) sleuths was also arrested by the Lokayukta police on Tuesday.

He was also produced in the court after his interrogation.

The Lokayukta raids and the subsequent searches by the Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate in the premises of Sharma in December last year led to recovery of properties, gold and diamond jewelries and cash worth crores of rupees.

All eyes are now focused on the mysterious ‘diary’ purportedly recovered during the Lokayukta raids in Sharma’s premises.

The Congress has released copies of six pages of the purported diary earlier and alleged that names of some influential people were mentioned in it as beneficiaries.

The party demanded the purported diary be made public and also sought a CBI probe into it.

Interestingly, the Lokayukta police were yet to either confirm or deny the reports of the recovery of the purported diary.

Significantly, Sharma who got the job of traffic constable on compassionate ground following the demise of his father, a government employee, had taken voluntary retirement from service merely after serving in the job for seven years in 2023 amid an investigation into the alleged corruption in the check gates, drawn to the notice of the then government in the state by Union surface transport minister Nitin Gadkari.