HC restrains police from taking coercive action against suspended IPS officer

The Jharkhand high court on Friday restrained authorities from taking any coercive action against suspended senior IPS officer Anurag Gupta, who is allegedly involved in 2016 Rajya Sabha horse trading case, till August 11.

The bench of justice SK Dwivedi, however, didn’t impose any restriction on authorities to carry out its ongoing investigation against Gupta.

The court also sought a reply from the government in response to Gupta’s petition challenging police decision to invoke charges under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act against him.

Gupta informed the court that the police invoked corruption charges against him without a forensic report .

Controversy gripped the 2016 Rajya Sabha biennial polls after BJP candidates Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Mahesh Poddar made it to the upper house on two vacant seats from Jharkhand, election for which was held on June 11 that year.

The election of the BJP’s second candidate Poddar sprung a surprise as the party didn’t have sufficient number of votes.

Soon after the elections, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) chief Babulal Marandi lodged complaint with the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Marandi, who is now BJP’s leader of opposition, annexed a compact disc (CD) with his complaint that contained telephonic conversations among the then additional director general, CID, Anurag Gupta, the then chief minister Rahubar Das’ political advisor Ajay Kumar and a former Congress minister Yogendra Sao, whose wife Nirmala Devi was then a sitting legislator.

It was alleged that Gupta and Kumar coerced Sao to convince his wife Devi not to vote in the polls.

Following ECI’s direction, the state government lodged named FIR against Gupta and Kumar.

Gupta on Friday informed the court that the police, without having a forensic report about the veracity of the CD, invoked corruption charges against him.