HC seeks status report in case against IPS officer

THE STATE GOVT HAD SUSPENDED THE IPS OFFICER IN FEBRUARY LAST YR

RANCHI: The Jharkhand high court on Wednesday sought the state government’s reply in response to the petition moved by a 1990-batch senior IPS officer Anurag Gupta for quashing an FIR lodged against him allegedly for influencing the 2016 Rajya Sabha biennial polls.

The bench of justice Ananda Sen asked the state government to file an affidavit within four weeks giving all factual details of the said FIR and the current status of investigation.

Gupta had filed a petition for quashing the FIR lodged against him and setting aside the government’s order of suspension. Besides, he demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the horse trading case.

Controversy had gripped the 2016 Rajya Sabha polls after BJP candidates Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Mahesh Poddar made it to the upper house on two vacant seats from Jharkhand, election for which was held on June 11 the same year.

Poddar’s election had sprung a surprise, as the party didn’t have sufficient number of votes.

Soon after the elections,

Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) chief Babulal Marandi had brought horse trading charges against the then ruling BJP alleging that some people at the helm of power adopted corrupt practices to influence the legislators to secure their votes in favour of BJP candidates.

Marandi, who is now the BJP’s leader of opposition, had filed a complaint before the election commission of India (ECI) in this regard.

He alleged that Gupta, then additional director general, CID, and one other had coerced former Congress leader Yogendra Sao to convince his legislator wife Nirmala Devi not to vote in the polls. ‘He had allegedly offered Sao to withdraw several criminal cases pending against him.

Following ECI’s intervention, the state government lodged an FIR against Gupta.

After change of guard in the state, Gupta was suspended in February last year.

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A special NIA court on Wednesday sentenced a Bangladeshi citizen, one of the prime accused in the Khagragarh blast case of 2014, to consecutive terms of imprisonment totalling 29 years for offences including waging war against any Asiatic power which is in alliance with the government of India.

Special NIA judge Suvendu Samanta sentenced Sheikh Kausar to five years each on five counts and two years each for two other offences, which he will have to undergo consecutively.

The judge directed that

Kausar, who admitted his guilt before the court, will also have to pay a total fine of Rs 29,000 for the offences.

Kausar was convicted under various sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), for waging war against any Asiatic power which is in alliance with the government of India, Foreigners’ Act and criminal conspiracy, NIA counsel Shyamal Ghosh said.

Links with terror group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were found in the blast that occurred on October 2, 2014.

Two suspected terrorists were killed and a third was injured while they were making bombs and explosive devices at a rented house in Khagragarh locality of Bardhaman town of West Bengal.

With the sentencing of Kausar, 31 of the total 33 accused in the case have been found guilty and sentenced. The remaining two are absconding.

The NIA had filed the primary chargesheet in the case in March 2015, saying that there was a “conspiracy of JMB, a proscribed organisation in Bangladesh, to overthrow the existing government in Bangladesh through violent terrorist acts”.

The investigation, which was first taken over by the state CID, was transferred to the NIA within a few days