Chandigarh, June 5 -- A local court on Wednesday framed charges against four accused, including a dismissed sub inspector of the Chandigarh police, Naveen Kumar Phogat, in a three-year-old case of kidnapping and dacoity. The accused, Vajinder, Virender, Naveen Kumar Phogat, and Shiv Kumar, were booked for allegedly kidnapping a Bathinda-based businessman and extorting Rs.1.01 crore from him. The FIR was registered in August 2023, at Chandigarh's Sector 39 police station. The court of additional district and sessions judge Ashwani Kumar, after going through the chargesheet filed against the accused, ordered a prima facie case punishable under Sections 365 (kidnapping or abducting a person with the intent to secretly and wrongfully confine them), 367 (kidnapping or abducting someone with the intent to subject them to grievous hurt), 389 (putting a person in fear of accusation in order to commit extortion), 397 (robbery or dacoity), 420 (cheating) and 506 (criminal intimidation) read with section 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. "The accused have been charge-sheeted accordingly. They have pleaded not guilty to the charge and claimed trial," said the court, while ordering the matter to be listed for July 11. Phogat, who was recruited in Chandigarh Police as an assistant sub-inspector in 2012, has been embroiled in other controversies too. He was accused of raping a 25-year-old Mumbai-based model at a hotel in Chandigarh's Industrial Area in June 2018. He was dismissed from service on then SSP Nilambari Jagdale's orders in October 2018. But after the complainant failed to identify him in court and the prosecution failed to prove the allegations, he was acquitted by a local court on February 28, 2022. He was then reinstated in the police. But just months later, he was sacked again after Bathinda-based businessman Sanjay Goyal alleged that he was kidnapped and robbed of Rs.1.01 crore by Phogat, then the additional SHO at Sector 39 police station, and other police personnel on August 4, 2023. The businessman had alleged that he was threatened of implication in cases of heroin smuggling and Arms Act if he reported the matter....