Uttarakhand police is struggling to ascertain the whereabouts of former special land acquisition officer (SlAO) DP Singh, one of the accused, in the multi-crore NH-74 land acquisition scam in Udham Singh Nagar district, who has been changing locations to evade police arrest.
Recently, the Supreme Court of India rejected the special leave petition (SlP) for exemption from arrest. Moreover, State Government formed SIT to investigate the NH-74 land acquisition scam has served notices to 10 departmental employees and farmers on Sunday and directed them to record their statement on Monday.
Apart from some farmers, around 150 Government officers, officials who have been currently deputed at Bajpur, Kashipur, Dehradun, Jaspur, Nainital and others were served notices and their statements were recorded in the past.
Udham Singh Nagar Senior Superintendent of Police Sadanand Date said that some Government officers, employees, farmers have been served notices and they have been directed to record their statement.
The SIT is conducting raids at various parts of the State to nab the accused DP Singh who is now on the run. Some teams were deployed in Dehradun and Delhi to arrest DP Singh on Sunday, he added.
Notably, the State High Court had on October 28 vacated its stay order granting DP Singh exemption from police arrest. Subsequently, Singh had moved Supreme Court and filed a special leave petition to evade police arrest.
Police sources said after Supreme Court rejected the SlP of the accused and now, the accused has been left with no other option but to either surrender in the court or appear before the police. Police would be deployed in plain cloth around court campus as DP Singh might surrender before the court on Monday or so.
The State Government had earlier handed over the case to SIT after an FIR was lodged regarding the multi-crore land acquisition scam, dubbed as a super scam. SIT has already collected evidences related to the case after questioning officers and employees of the departments concerned.
SIT had secured sufficient evidences against SlAO DP Singh regarding the case to nail his down, police had claimed. However, after the High Court had cancelled its stay order on October 28 and Supreme Court had rejected the SlP, Singh disappeared and has been on the run, moving from one place to another, to evade police arrest. Keeping the possibility of Singh escaping abroad, police had already released a look out notice.
SIT has been formed led by additional SP Kamlesh Upadhyay and CO Swatantra Kumar as investigating officer and others inspectors and sub-inspectors are members of the team. SIT is being supervised by SSP, Udham Singh Nagar and DIG Kumaon.