New Case on Sedition
The newspapers were flooded with reporting on another case taken up by the Supreme Court on the issue of sedition cases observing that when regimes change is a “disturbing trend”, the Supreme Court. The court while granting protection from arrest to the suspended Director of Chhattisgarh Police Academy against whom two criminal cases of sedition and amassing of disproportionate assets have been filed by the State Government. The bench was headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana.
Gurjinder Pal Singh, the 1994-batch IPS officer who had served as the IG of Raipur, Durg and Bilaspur during the earlier BJP rule, was initially booked in the disproportionate assets case following raids at his premises by state’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and Economic Offences Wing (EOW). Another case of sedition was invoked against him later on the grounds of his alleged involvement in promoting enmity and hatching a conspiracy against the Government.
Court Room Arguments
The bench expressed displeasure over the trend of filing of sedition cases just after senior advocate FS Nariman made opening submissions on behalf of Singh, saying “the gentleman has served as the Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) and was acting as the Director of the Police Academy and now the proceedings under section 124A (sedition) of the IPC have been initiated against him”.
“This is a very disturbing trend in the country and the police department is also responsible for this… When a political party is in power, police officials take the side of the particular (ruling) party. Then when another new party comes into power, the government initiates action against the police officials. This needs to be stopped”
The bench, which also comprised Justice Surya Kant, directed the Congress-led state government not to arrest Singh till further orders in either of the cases.
The petitioner was directed to participate in the inquiry/investigation and fully cooperate with the investigating agency without fail, the bench said in the order.
The State Government was represented by senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Rakesh Dwivedi and lawyer Sumeer Sodhi. At the outset, Nariman said the issue of custodial interrogation of the police officer does not arise as the charge sheet has already been filed.
Background of the Case
According to the news published, the director of the state police academy was suspended on July 5 after the ACB/EOW, on June 29, registered an FIR under the Prevention of Corruption Act in connection with the disproportionate assets he had allegedly amassed.
The ACB/EOW, which carried a three-day search at around 15 locations linked to Singh from July 1 to 3, claimed to have discovered movable and immovable assets worth around Rs 10 crore.
During the raid at the official residence of Singh, torn pieces of paper were also found from the backyard of the house. When the pieces were rearranged, serious and sensitive contents were found to be written and typed on it, the FIR said.
These papers contained objectionable comments against leaders of reputed political parties along with detailed plans of conspiracy. Besides, secret assessments related to representatives and candidates of different assembly constituencies along with comments on serious issues of the concerned areas were also written. The papers contained critical comments on several government schemes, policies, social and religious issues, it said.
Image Source: The New Indian Express
(This news is not edited by ILW except for headings)
