MEERUT: Senior policemen in Uttar Pradesh were first in denial and later damage-control mode on Tuesday after a leaked WhatsApp chat, in which station house officer posted in Bulandshahr claimed to have paid Rs 50,000 bribe to the Meerut ADG for his transfer, went viral on social media. The SHO, Parshuram, was recently shifted from Noida to Dibai police station in the western UP district.Such was the impact of the leaked message that Bulandshahr SSP K B Singh had to file an FIR against "unknown" persons and the "erring" SHO was suspended on Tuesday morning.Additional director general (Meerut zone) Prashant Kumar, on the other hand, rubbished the claim and called the incident a "mischief".In the chat, purportedly between Parshuram and an unidentified person, the policeman says : "Bhai, Yogi sarkaar hai. Har jagah paisa chal raha hai. Mere ko khud Noida se Bulandshahr aane mein ADG ko Rs 50k dena pada (Brother, this is Yogi government. Everywhere bribe is being given. Even I had to pay the ADG Rs 50k for my transfer from Noida to Bulandshahr.)"It did not stop at that. The chat even had a mention of Bulandshahr SSP K B Singh. When the unspecified person asked if the Bulandshahr SSP also takes money, the reply was " Direct koi nahi leta. Yahan bhi charge baad mein mila. Pehle inke ek jaankaar ke maadhyam se Rs 3 lakh bhijvaaye agle din charge mila (No one takes directly. Here also I got the charge only after I sent Rs 3 lakh to an acquaintance of his)."Rubbishing the allegation, ADG Prashant Kumar said, "This is absurd and some kind of mischief to tarnish our image. First, this transfer was done by IG (Meerut range) and not me. I transfer officials from one range to another, not from one district to another. Moreover, there is no mention of which ADG is being talked about. There are eight zones in UP."IG (Meerut range) Ram Kumar said, "This was a routine transfer. Regarding the chats, its authenticity is being verified and there is a possibility that the number was used to tarnish UP police's image. Once our investigation is complete, the truth will come out."While Parshuram said he did not write those messages and it was a "case of cybercrime", he was suspended by the Bulandshahr SSP on Tuesday.The SSP later filed an FIR against "unknown persons". In the FIR, a copy of which is with TOI, Singh alleged: "From the CUG (closed user group) number of Dibai SHO, a chat has been made viral in which serious allegations of transfers against bribe have been levelled against me and senior police officials. This seems to have been done with mala fide intentions to tarnish my seniors' and my own image."The FIR doesn't name Parshuram and has been filed against "unknown" persons under IPC sections 170 (pretends to hold any particular office as a public servant), 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 500 (defamation) and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act 2008.

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