VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, March 31: Leaders of the Congress getting convicted in criminal cases have left Congress’ Ramgarh MLA Mamata Devi worried. She is learnt to have approached the state leadership of the party to get her case investigated by the CID.
Top sources in Congress said she raised the matter recently with the state leadership and sought its intervention to convince the government to transfer the case to the CID.
On August 21, 2016, three villagers had died in police firing during a protest against the land acquisition by a private company IPL at Tapugatu village in Gola of Ramgarh district. Two separate FIRs had been lodged at Gola and Rajrappa police stations against her. A couple of days back the court framed charges against her and the trial has been fast-tracked.
“There is a sense of anxiety and nervousness among MLAs after Yogendra Sao and his wife Nirmala Devi were sentenced to 10 years of jail in a similar case of land agitation. MLAs fear that if they fight for the public cause they will be implicated and their political career will be finished. This is also true that they don’t trust the police. A couple of days back Bandhu Tirkey was convicted and he has lost his membership in the House,” said a senior party leader.
However, the leader remained tight-lipped on whether the transfer of the case is legally possible at this stage when the charges have been framed. But the leader accepted that MLAs are highly worried and the party would back them since they fought for the just cause and they were implicated by the then BJP government to settle political scores.
Both privately and publicly, a number of MLAs and leaders of the Congress have alleged the highhandedness of the police and they equally criticized their own government in Jharkhand for not giving them justice. Barkagaon MLA of the Congress, Amba Prasad has been critical of the government. She alleged that her parents Yogendra Sao and Nirmala Devi did not get any support from the government for the reinvestigation of cases against her. It is not surprising that Amba Prasad too believes that the CID can investigate the case in an impartial manner rather than the district police.
