A public-interest-litigation (PIl) has been filed in Jharkhand High Court against State government in connection with alleged thrashing of Deputy General Manager (DGM) of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Rakesh Nandan Sahay by the then Deputy Commissioner of Hazaribagh, Sunil Kumar seeking the Government to submit report immediately.
Petitioner, Ajay Rai accused the State Government of dragging feet over the inquiry report that was prepared by a committee headed by Additional Chief Secretary, NN Pandey. The committee, as the petitioner stated, was formed by the order of Chief Minister Raghubar Das. The PIl was filed on April 15. Kumar, the then Hazaribagh DC, has been transferred and posted as Managing Director of transmission wing of Jharkhand Urja Vikas Nigam limited (JUVNl).
“CM’s statement had come that the committee should submit its report in seven days. However that did not happen even after three months. So we want that report to be submitted as the incident is serious in nature,” said Rai. The petitioner’s counsel, Rajiv Kumar stated that the committee’s failure in submitting inquiry report is detrimental for investment climate in the State as the public-sector-undertaking is also an investor in State’s infrastructure. The PSU is the biggest player in the energy sector with large projects under its belt in different parts of Jharkhand. Interestingly, a bureaucrat investigating a bureaucrat doesn’t seem to have gone down well with the petitioner.
“First, we want the report and second if the report is not satisfactory then we would like to have an independent inquiry into the matter. The PIl has been admitted and notice has been issued,” said Advocate for the petitioner, Rajiv Kumar. Meanwhile, fledgling political party, Bhartiya Suraaj Dal, raised the matter with National Human Rights Commission and Jharkhand State Human Rights Commission alleging behaviour of Sunil Kumar as unbecoming of an Indian Administrative Service Officer. The party’s letter to NHRC and JHRC made serious accusation against the state’s bureaucracy. The party also penned a letter to the CM expressing concern of impartial inquiry because of the accused and investigator being officers of the same category.
“It is not expected that the state administration will be interested in bringing out the truth and punishing the culprit, which in this case, is their own Deputy Commissioner,” says the letter undersigned by BSD president, PK Siddharth. The incident reportedly took place on February 10 and Sahay in his complaint alleged that the then DC thrashed him brutally with the help of police officials. The then DC however had rejected the charges.