HC notice to Kunwar Vijay, state govt on AIG Kapoor’s plea

CHANDIGARH: The high court on Tuesday put the Punjab government on notice on a plea seeking transfer of probe in a rape case against assistant inspector general (vigilance) Ashish Kapoor from IG Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh to some other official.

The high court bench of justice Arvind Singh Sangwan has sought responses from Punjab additional chief secretary (home), director general of police, chief director of vigilance bureau and Kunwar Vijay, who heads Organised Crime Control Unit (OCCU) by January 20.

As per the petition, the state special operation cell had named Kapoor in the FIR after a woman from Haryana levelled allegations of rape and criminal intimidation against him. The woman — who was convicted in an immigration fraud case — in a statement before a judicial magistrate in Mohali had alleged that she was raped and cheated by Kapoor and some other police officials. Originally, the FIR registered in May pertained to an extortion case in which Patiala jail superintendent Rajan Kapur was dismissed. Kunwar Vijay had looked into the complaint of the woman who alleged harassment inside the jail.

AIG Kapoor, in his petition, had admitted that he knew the woman since 2016 when she was lodged in Amritsar jail and helped her on humanitarian grounds but has denied allegations of rape. The petitioner has been indicted on mere statement of the woman as he refused to bow down to her demands to help her in a immigration fraud case in which she was subsequently convicted, Kapoor’s counsel Pradeep Virk told court questioning as to why the woman did not mention of these allegations during the trial of cheating case in which she was held guilty.

The petitioner alleged that Kunwar Vijay was ‘acting as the de-facto complainant’ and making all efforts possible to ‘establish his (Kapoor’s) culpability’ and took the woman to various officers himself due to his ‘personal biases’ against the petitioner.

“As an investigating officer, it is imperative that he is seen to be independent and impartial. However, a perusal of his conduct casts serious doubts apropos his ability to conduct the investigation in a fair manner, “the petition alleged further elaborating that Kunwar Vijay got recorded the woman’s statement in some other case for which jail authorities permission was not taken and investigating officer too was not informed of further developments.

The high court has for now sought response from respondents whether probe can be transferred to some other official.