Jharkhand High Court on Monday directed Director General of Police (DGP) Rajiv Kumar to monitor and expedite the probe into the cash-for-vote scam during the Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) Mayor’s election, held in 2013. The court’s directive came after the petitioner’s lawyer brought to its notice that the then Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), probing the case, had shot off a letter to the DGP asserting that DIG Pravin Kumar was putting undue pressure on him to save some high-profile accused.
A division bench of Chief Justice Virender Singh and Justice Aparesh Kumar was hearing a PIl filed by Dewan Indranil Sinha. “The court has directed that the investigations will be done under the supervision of the DGP and he will file a progress report every month before the High Court,” said petitioner’s advocate Rajeev Kumar.
In the PIl, it was alleged that the DSP was transferred at a crucial stage, especially when the probe was on the verge of conclusion. It was also alleged that the Government, in order to protect some high profile politicians, transferred the officer to hush up the investigation. Additional Advocate General Ajit Kumar also said that the court has directed the DGP to monitor the ongoing investigations in the case which is to be reviewed at least in a month and a copy of it should be submitted before the court.
“DIG Praveen Kumar called me to his official residence in HEC on March 23, 2014, and asked me to help the accused persons insisting to fix a meeting with former Ranchi MP Subodh Kant Sahay, his brother Sunil Sahay and other accused persons citing his closeness to the former MP who was also a friend of Kumar’s father in law,” stated the IO in his affidavit. The offer, however, was turned down by the IO.
The IO further stated that earlier also, when the DIG was posted in STF, he tried to influence the investigations asking him to accept the claims made by Akil-ur-Rahman that the money seized by the police from City Palace Hotel was collected through donations by a committee headed by him in order to give it to a suitable candidate decided by it.
According to the submission made on behalf of the petitioner, charge sheet has been filed against the former Mayor Rama Khalkho, Santosh Singh as well as Niranjan Sharma but, no action was taken against Sahay brothers in the case. The case had been lodged against the then Mayor and Congress candidate and others after a sum of Rs21.9 lakh was seized by the police from a hotel room in Ranchi ahead of the municipal elections on April 8 2013. The mayoral elections, however, were scrapped later by the State Election Commission on the basis of reports of rigging submitted by the Ranchi Police and Income Tax department.