RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, Aug.11: The Jharkhand High Court maintained the stay on coercive action against suspended additional director general (ADG) of police Anurag Gupta till September 6.
While giving relief after the virtual hearing, the court of Justice Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi also directed the suspended ADG to file a counter affidavit in the reply filed by the state government in his petition.
Suspended ADG Gupta had knocked on the door of the high court to challenge the invocation of sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PC Act) against him by the state government for his alleged involvement in horse-trading during the 2016 Rajya Sabha election.
The provision was invoked on the basis of a report sent to the home department by the then ADG (CID) Anil Palta, who sent the report after supervision of the horse-trading case.
Suspended ADG Gupta while challenging the invocation of the section of PC Act has also urged for revocation of his suspension apart from requesting the court to ensure examination of his voice in original CD on the basis of which case of corruption was made out against him.
On May 26, chief minister Hemant Soren approved the prosecution of former chief minister Raghubar Das, ADG Anurag Gupta, and former political adviser to chief minister Ajay Kumar under the Prevention of Corruption Act for their involvement in horse-trading during the 2016 Rajya Sabha election.
The approval was given following the direction of the election commission on June 13, 2017 to the then chief secretary Rajbala Verma to start criminal and departmental proceedings against them for misuse of official position, interference in the election, breach of conduct/service rules and other relevant offences.
The commission gave the direction after Babulal Marandi, who was then running a separate political party, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha, exposed the matter before it. Marandi, now the BJP legislature party chief, had released a compact disc (CD) on July 15, 2016 nearly one after one month after the Rajya Sabha election that took place on June 11, 2016.
The CD contained telephonic conversations between ADG Anurag Gupta, CM’s political adviser, Ajay Kumar and a former Congress minister Yogendra Sao, whose wife Nirmala Devi is a sitting legislator.
Following the directions, a criminal case was registered at Jagannathpur police station. Except for Gupta, departmental proceedings were not started against any of the two accused.
