VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, April 16: The Jharkhand High Court judgment referring the investigation of the 34th National Games to the CBI has come up with some very serious remarks on the political, police, and the bureaucratic class of Jharkhand that prevented a proper probe.
A Division bench of Chief Justice Dr. Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad passed the judgment on April 11 and has even said that persons at the helms of affairs i.e., political as well as high-ups in the bureaucracy duped the court.
JMM patriarch and former Jharkhand chief minister Shibu Soren has been twice mentioned in the judgment. What arouses curiosity is that the court referred to him as the father of the present chief minister Hemant Soren. The court said handing over this case to the CBI would be in the interest of social justice and to maintain the faith of people in the justice system.
Without naming any politician and bureaucrat, the court has dropped hints of who they are and why the probe never proceeded in the right direction.
“The Chairman of the Organizing Committee, during the relevant time, was Shibu Soren, as also he was Chief Minister of the Jharkhand. The names of the high-ups of the Police administration and the bureaucrats have also surfaced along with the Ministers concerned. The investigation has not proceeded in the right direction, rather, the dilly-dallying tactics was there,” the court said.
“…committee which was constituted for organizing the 34th National Games, was headed by the then Chief Minister, who is the father of the present Chief Minister and it would also appear from the list of the committees wherein most of the bureaucrats are now at the highest level of the Government heading the departments. Therefore, will it not be proper for this Court, in such a situation, to hand over the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation in order to maintain the faith of the people and to secure the social justice,” the court said.
The court said that there were hints of the suspected involvement of many top officials in the alleged scam it is hard to believe that the Jharkhand Vigilance Bureau now named as the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) can investigate the national games scam properly.
The court pointed out that in the PIL 7719/2012, the High court had ordered the ACB to complete the investigation into the construction of Mega Sports Complex. Although an investigation pertaining to the purchase of sports equipment was carried out through Case No.49/2010, but no such investigation has been conducted either by the State Police or by the ACB.
“Even persons at the helms of affairs i.e., political as well as high-ups in the bureaucracy, have duped the Court by filing false affidavit regarding handing over the investigation pertaining to the construction of Mega sports Complex to the Vigilance Bureau while the functionary of investigating agency itself has stated before this Court that no such investigation has been handed over to the Vigilance Bureau,” the court frowned.
It further stated that state authorities sitting in the helms of affairs as also political leaders who may be involved in the matter of organizing the 34th National Games, appears to have managed the things by not handing over the investigation to Vigilance Bureau in the matter of construction of Mega Sports Complex.
The court said that even investigation of the equipment purchase case is going on for the last 12 years whereas the court had directed the Vigilance Bureau to compete the probe in eight months of time in an order the court had passed on January 31, 2014. It reprimanded and said that in criminal matters probe can’t be allowed to be continued till eternity.
The court seemingly has raised question over the probity of the police official probing the case.
“But in the case in hand, despite the order passed by this Court, the investigation has not been completed, rather, it has been allowed to be continued, and still it is continuing. This puts a serious question mark upon the investigating agency, the officials, and all high[1]ups. It has been informed to this Court that the matter is being investigated pertaining to Vigilance Case No.49/2010 and a serious allegation has been leveled against one high police official who is now in the helms of affairs of the Anti-Corruption Bureau, being its head,” the court said.
The court passed order while hearing a batch of PIL filed by Sushil Kumar Singh Mantu, Surya Singh Besra of Jharkhand Against Corruption, and Pankaj Yadav.
