HC seeks reply on plea over IPS officer’s disappearance

PRAYAGRAJ: The Allahabad high court has directed the state government to file a counter affidavit (reply) in response to a habeas corpus writ petition seeking production of suspended IPS officer and ex-SP of Mahoba Manilal Patidar.

The habeas corpus is a writ that seeks to bring a prisoner or other detainee before the court to determine if the person’s imprisonment or detention is lawful. A request has also been made to initiate a CBI probe into Patidar’s matter as the petitioner said he was not traceable.

Hearing the petition, a division bench of justice Manoj Misra and justice Syed Aftab Husain Rizvi observed, “It is not in dispute that Mani Lal Patidar had been in the police force of the State of Uttar Pradesh and was a high-ranking officer of the level of Superintendent of Police, Mahoba. Such a person having gone missing for the last few months is a serious issue. Therefore, it would be important to ascertain as to what steps were taken by the administration including the investigating agency to apprehend him, particularly, when, on the own showing of the respondents, his anticipatory bail applications were rejected”.

It was alleged in the petition filed by Dr Mukut Nath Verma, an advocate, that Patidar, a 2014-batch IPS officer, had been conducting operations against mining mafia and in connection therewith his relations with certain sections in the administration grew sour and as a result he was falsely implicated in a few cases. The bench directed to list the petition on June 14 for next hearing.