Former IPS officer Manilal Patidar, who surrendered in the Lucknow Anti-Corruption Court and was sent to jail on Saturday, would face further trouble as apart from the police, the Vigilance and Enforcement Department will also tighten the grip on him.
The ED started the investigation by registering a case against Patidar under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act about a year ago. If sources are to be believed, the ED has gathered information about Patidar's properties worth about Rs 50 crore. Many of these properties are in the name of his relatives and many benami properties are also there.
Apart from Vigilance and ED, the Mahoba police will now take Patidar on police remand to grill him and extract details of all crimes committed by him as an IPS officer. The biggest challenge before the agencies is to find the helpers who were giving shelter to Patidar for two years. Knowing where and with whom he was in contact with during this time will be very important both for the police and for the sleuths of Vigilance and ED.
Vigilance is already probing the disproportionate assets of Patidar. During the Vigilance investigation, the creation of a vicious circle of transfers of subordinate police officers for recovery from crusher traders during Patidar's tenure as Mahoba’s superintendent of police also came to the fore.
A SP of Mahoba, Patidar had transferred Inspector Devendra Shukla twice in six months. Inspector Devendra Shukla is also accused in the case of abetting the crusher businessman and is presently in jail. The facts of several other station house officers being transferred against have come to the fore.
It may be mentioned that suspended senior IPS officer Manilal Patidar, who had been absconding for the last two years after his name cropped up in the death of a mining businessman, surrendered before a Lucknow court on Saturday. He was sent to jail for14-days’ judicial custody by the additional district and sessions judge (Prevention of Corruption Act).
Notably, it was during Patidar's stint as SP of Mahoba in Bundelkhand that mining businessman Indra Kant Tripathi had levelled serious charges of corruption against him. Tripathi even made a video substantiating his allegations against Patidar viral in 2020. A day later, news of Tripathi's mysterious death from gunshot wounds surfaced.
A case of murder was registered against Patidar and three others initially on the directives of the state government. Patidar also never appeared before a Special Investigation Team (SIT) despite repeated summons. Later, on the basis of SIT report, a case of murder was registered against Patidar, and later it was converted to a case of abetment to suicide.
Patidar was suspended in 2020 on charges of corruption. The state Vigilance department also booked Patidar under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Later, the Mahoba police lodged another FIR against Patidar for not appearing before the court despite being declared an absconder. In May this year, the state government had written a letter to the Union Home Ministry recommending dismissal of Patidar from the Indian Police Service.