With the sleuths of the Special Task Force (STF) and Uttar Pradesh Police busy tracking the whereabouts of former Mahoba SP Mani Lal Patidar, wanted in connection with the death of a 44-year-old businessman in September last year, the UP government announced a cash reward of Rs 1 lakh on him. The announcement was made by ADG, Prayagraj Zone, Prem Prakash on Friday. Earlier, he carried a cash reward of Rs 50,000.
Patidar, the 2014-batch IPS officer, hails from Dungarpur (Rajasthan). Last week, the Allahabad High Court had directed the state government to respond to a habeas corpus petition seeking production of Patidar. In the petition, former SP’s lawyer Mukut Nath Verma claimed that his client was falsely implicated in the case as he had been acting against the mining mafia, and as a result his relationship with a certain section of the state administration had soured. The petitioner claimed that the respondents were high-ranking state administration officials who might have done ‘something foul’ because of which the former police officer was missing.
Verma also claimed that Patidar was going to unravel foul play in the administration and that his life might be in danger. After hearing the petitioner, the court said, “It is not in dispute that Mani Lal Patidar had been in the police force of the state of Uttar Pradesh and was a high-ranking officer of the level of Superintendent of Police, Mahoba. Such a person having gone missing for the last few months is a serious issue. Therefore, it would be important to ascertain as to what steps were taken by the administration, including the investigating agency, to apprehend him, particularly, when, on the own showing of the respondents, his anticipatory bail applications were rejected.”
Additional Superintendent of Police Ashutosh Mishra, the investigating officer of the case, told reporters, “We are making all efforts to arrest Mani Lal Patidar. A police team has gone to Rajasthan to trace him. The police will soon move court to obtain an order to attach the former SP’s property.” The police had already pasted the court order at Patidar’s house declaring him a proclaimed offender, he added. The HC will next hear the petition by the former SP’s lawyer on June 14.
Sources said that a team of STF also became active after the HC’s directive. A team of the officers of STF and Chitrakoot district reached Vadodara after finding the location of the missing IPS officer through mobile surveillance. The team had earlier failed to locate him in Dungarpur and in Ahmedabad. In Dungarpur, his family members claimed to have no information about his whereabouts.
Patidar is wanted in connection with the investigation into the death of businessman Indra Kant Tripathi. The trader was found in his car with a bullet injury on September 8, a day after he released a video accusing the then SP of corruption and criminal intimidation. He succumbed to injuries five days later.
The police initially registered a case against Patidar, former Kabrai Station Officer Devendra Shukla and local businessmen Suresh Soni & Brahm Dutt for allegedly harassing Tripathi for money. After Tripathi’s death, they were charged with murder.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to probe the incident, however, said in its findings that Tripathi could have committed suicide as he was shot from a close range with his licenced pistol, and the presence of no one else in the car was established.
Based on the SIT report, the Mahoba police amended the murder charge to abetment of suicide. While Soni, Dutt, Shukla and constable Arun Kumar Yadav were arrested — all of them are in jail at present — Patidar remained absconding. The police recently registered a case against Patidar under IPC Section 174-A (non-appearance in response to a proclamation under section 82 of Act 2 of 1974) at the Kabrai police station.