State government finally made a move to initiate legal proceedings against the police officials which included then SSP of lucknow, Prem Prakash, then SP (East) Harish Kumar, circle officer of Hazratganj, Bhagwan Singh Gabriyal (now retired), along with two inspectors and four constables.
All the above cops connived with the politicians of the then ruling Party to facilitate arson and loot in the house of than State president of Congress, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who is now a MlA from Cantt Assembly seat. Interestingly the move to register a case against the above cops came almost at the same time when Rita Bahuguna Joshi, raised the issue of inaction of the Samajwadi Party government to punish the cops who brought shame on the Khakhi by indulging in criminal conspiracy. It is to be now seen what action will be taken against the cops three of whom now also got promotion to senior ranks. While Prem Prakash is now promoted to DIG rank, Harish Kumar, was inducted into elite cadre of Indian Police Services (IPS) while then inspector of Hussainganj police station, Balram Saroj, has been promoted and inducted into Provincial Police Service (PPS) cadre. Surprisingly the promotions were made even when these officials were facing enquiry.
Reports said that after waiting for more than a year of recommendation of Crime Branch Crime Investigation Department (CB CID), which asked to initiate criminal proceedings in Rita Bahuguna Joshi’s case against over a dozen police officers including Prem Prakash, Harish Kumar, Bhagwan Singh Gabriyal, then Reserve Inspector, Awadesh Kumar Pandey, then SHO of Hussainganj police station, Balram Saroj, sub-inspector, Jitendra Bhadhur, Brij Kishore Dwivedi, Dhirendra Singh, along with constables Chandra Shekhar, Ashok Kumar, Riyazul Haq, Virendra Kumar, Jugrat Singh, Hamidulah, Surendra Pratap Singh, Shiv Bhadhur etc, the sleuths of the CB CID on direction of the State government registered a case against all the police officers at Hussaiganj police station on Friday.
According to the probe made by than SP (CB CID) Pankaj Kumar, it was revealed that the cops connived with the then leaders of Bahujan Samaj Party. The probe pointed that all the senior police officers involved in the criminal conspiracy in getting the staff and security removed from Rita Bahuguna’s House and later facilitated the goons to openly torched the Congress State president’s house as well as loot and arson. The probe pointed that some cops even ensured that the entire exercise should be completed without hurdle and only when the costly belongings were reduced to ashes, they reached and staged a drama of initiating action against the culprits.
It may be also mentioned that these officers also arrested four innocent youths and booked them in Rita’s case just to save the culprits. This fact also came up during CB CID probe. Besides the policemen, the than MlA of BSP, Jitendra Singh Babloo, and Intezar Abidi, then holding Minister of state rank were also charge-sheeted in the case. Babloo is a senior BSP leader and had contested the 2014 lok Sabha elections from Faizabad on BSP ticket. Babloo and Abidi both were also arrested in the case.
Earlier in the day, Joshi had raised the issue in the state assembly demanding immediate submitting of the chargesheet. last year in July, the agency had submitted its report to the state government after five years of the incident which rocked the state. The probe agency has submitted before the government the 400-page report. The Mall Avenue house of Joshi, who was them the UP Congress Committee chief, was set on fire on July 15, 2009. At that time, she was in police custody for allegedly making stinging remarks against the then chief minister Mayawati. Police arrested five people and also booked two Bahujan Samaj Party leaders. Joshi, however, moved the High Court seeking a CBI probe but the BSP government handed it over to the CB-CID. The agency has now reportedly concluded that the arson was a pre-planned act. Rita raised the issue of delay in submitting the charge-sheet in the case related to torching of her house in 2009.
Raising the issue through special mention during the zero hour in the assembly on Friday, Joshi alleged that state parliamentary affairs minister Mohammad Azam Khan had assured her in February 2014 that the charge-sheet would be submitted very soon but even after 13 months nothing had happened. She said that her residence was torched during the regime of Mayawati by some political leaders under the patronage of policemen but the culprits are still to be punished. ‘ The media made a wide coverage and they earned Rs 200 crores air time over the news,’ she claimed. The Congress member also said that Allahabad High Court had dismissed the case asking me to approach to the government.’ But nothing has happened so far,’ she said.