RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, April 4: Firebrand tribal leader Bandhu Tirkey, who is on the verge of losing his legislator status following the award of three-year jail term for having disproportionate assets, knocked on the door of the Jharkhand High Court for relief.
Tirkey has challenged the CBI court order awarding him three years imprisonment and urged the appellate court to confirm his provisional bail granted by the lower court for a month from the date of conviction.
The tribal leader, who is presently associated with the Congress party and working in the capacity of executive president of the party in Jharkhand, pleaded that though the investigation agency failed to prove charges against him, the CBI court convicted him and awarded a sentence.
On March 28, the CBI court convicted Tirkey in the disproportionate assets case and sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment besides imposing a fine of Rs 3 lakhs. The conviction was done under sections 13(2)13(1) 13(3) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The order came after almost 12 years of legal formalities full of ups and downs. The case was registered on August 11 in the year 2010 following a Jharkhand High Court on August 10 in the same year. On March 21, 2013, the CBI submitted the closure report to the court giving details of the income, assets and expenditures of the brothers.
Six years after the CBI filed a closure report the charge was framed on January 16, 2019, following which Tirkey was arrested and sent to jail.
According to the CBI, Bandhu Tirkey has acquired assets disproportionate to the income of Rs 6,28,698 between 2005 and 2009 during his tenure as MLA and minister but the sources close to Tirkey said that the investigating agency had started investigation not having such a small amount but on getting information of having 100-acre plot in Banhaura and a flat in Delhi in the name of Tirkey and his close relatives.
Tirkey’s advocate Nilesh Agrawal confirmed the development saying ‘the purpose of knocking on the door of the court to point out the lacunae in the CBI investigation and calculation of assets of my client besides getting immediate relief.’
