The Jharkhand High Court on Tuesday ordered Jharkhand Police DGP MV Rao to ensure FIR in the case related to tampering of documents and records of the Scheduled Area Regulation (SAR) court of Ranchi.
The order was passed by Justice Ananda Sen while hearing a petition filed by one Matiyas Vijay Toppo. The court termed tampering of SAR court records as a matter of serious concern. Petitioner is a former SAR court officer of Ranchi.
Toppo has been facing departmental inquiry as he has been accused of disposing off about 300 cases in an illegal manner. It is stated that during departmental inquiry, Toppo was allowed access of records and documents of SAR court to prove his innocence.
During examination and perusal of documents, Toppo claimed to have found that the signature of the court officer was forged on as many as 70 records and these documents were not actually signed by him.
It was also found that records and documents of some of the cases were missing whereas some other documents were interpolated in the case records. It was discovered that in these cases order was not passed in the favour of tribal land owners. Judgments were given in the favour of non-tribal purchasers.
The Chhotanagpur Tenancy Act prohibits the transfer of tribal land to any non-tribal person.
Toppo claimed that he repeatedly raised the issue before the departmental inquiry board that records and documents at SAR court are being tempered. But the board did not bother to look into the issue.
He then knocked on the door of Ranchi DC but no action was taken. He then finally moved before Jharkhand High Court to seek a proper inquiry into this matter.
Toppo was represented by his lawyers namely Rajendra Krishna and Amit Sinha who drew attention of court towards interpolation in the case record, missing documents and forged signature at SAR court. They prayed for proper immediate investigation and action against guilty persons.