No misbehavour with Jaya, says Rampur DM’s report
LUCKNOW: The Rampur district magistrate has given a clean chit to the assistant regional transport officer (ARTO) who was accused by actor-turned-MP Jaya Prada of illegally removing the red beacon from her car and misbehaving with her in Rampur on April 13.
However, it may be too early for the ARTO to cheer because Jaya Prada’s petition against him is yet to be disposed of by the high court.
District magistrate NKS Chauhan has sent his report to the state government, justifying the ARTO’s action of removing the beacon and suggesting that her complaint about misbehaviour was not found to be true.
“The inquiry is, therefore, closed,” says the DM in his report sent to the principal secretary, transport, and others, a few days ago.
On Jaya Prada’s written complaint, the then DM Shubhra Saxena had set up a two-member panel comprising ADM Syed Nizamuddin and ASP Sadhana Goswami to probe the charges. The MP, in her complaint letter, had alleged that ARTO Kaushlendra Yadav not only removed the red beacon, that she was entitled to, from her car but also caught her hand and misbehaved with her.
Lok Manch leader Amar Singh had called a press conference in Lucknow a day after the incident and alleged that ARTO Kaushlendra acted and misbehaved with Jaya Prada at the behest of prominent Samajwadi Party leader and urban development minister Azam Khan.
Sources, however, said the inquiry committee had found no substance in the charges. “The DM in his report has said the MPs are authorised to use a red beacon without flasher but Jaya Prada’s vehicle was found to have the red beacon with flasher which an MP was not entitled to,” an official in the transport depart- ment revealed.
He further said the panel also did not find any truth in her complaint about the officer holding her hand and showing disrespect to her. “The video recording of the spot and statements of those present, including local journalists and constables, did not corroborate the charges,” he said.
The DM-appointed committee took more than two months to wind up the inquiry because neither Jaya Prada nor anyone on her behalf turned before the panel to record statements despite reminders.
Though the DM has closed the inquiry giving the clean chit to the accused, the ARTO’s fate still hangs in the balance since Jaya Prada had petitioned the high court as well and the case is pending there. “The high court’s Lucknow bench had listed the case for hearing on July 11 but the case could not be taken up that day because of the judge concerned being on leave that day,” said sources.
It is also because of the highprofile case being in the high court that transport officers are avoiding making any statement on record on the DM’s report, pleading that “the matter is sub judice”.