Long rope to public servants? Deletion of sections in FIR raises questions

LUCKNOW Deletion of sections related to charges against public servants involved in corruption has raised questions even as the investigation into the Invest UP ‘commission for approval case’ gathers momentum. The absence of a senior officer’s name from the FIR and no mention of his role in initial investigation provides a long rope to the public servants allegedly involved in graft.

The allegations of extortion, bribing a public servant and abetment to bribe a public servant stand against ‘high profile middleman’ Nikant Jain, 39, who was arrested on March 20 - the same day IAS officer and Invest UP CEO Abhishek Prakash was suspended by the Yogi Adityanath government over allegations of corruption in connection with the solar power plant project. But charges under sections 7 and 13 of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, 1988, have been removed in the case for lack of evidence against any public servant so far, said police officials on Wednesday.

Jain is currently lodged in Lucknow district jail in judicial custody, after he was booked for allegedly seeking bribe at the behest of the senior officer for approving the project. An FIR was lodged against him at Gomti Nagar police station under Section 308(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which deals with extortion and PC Act’s Section 7 for offences related to public servants being bribed, Section 12 for abetment of offences and Section 13 for criminal misconduct by a public servant.

“We were forced to remove Section 7 and 13 of the PC Act during investigation as it is applicable on public servant. The court objected to granting Nikant Jain’s judicial remand on March 25, if any public servant’s involvement was not established in the case. Section 8 of the PC Act, 1988, which deals with the offence of bribing a public servant was added while Section 12 for abetment of offences was retained against Jain to procure his judicial custody,” said ACP (Gomti Nagar) VK Dwivedi, the investigation officer of the case.

He said charges of corruption by public servants will be added when the evidence against the government officer is found during further investigation.

According to the state government’s statement issued after Prakash’s suspension on March 20, the project was again sent for re-evaluation by the Invest UP CEO after approval allegedly without any valid reason. “Malicious intent of the CEO, vested interest and unfair financial gain could be the reasons for this. Prima facie Abhishek Prakash has been found responsible. This is a violation of the All-India Services (conduct) rules -1968 section -3,” the statement read.

According to the FIR, Nikant Jain was supposedly demanding 5% of total cost of the project as commission for approval of the project, allegedly at the behest of senior officer of Invest UP. The FIR was lodged on the complaint of senior authority of SAEL Solar P6 Private Limited, Vishwajeet Dutt after the state government took cognizance on the firm’s complaint.