Bulandshahr : Allahabad high court has ordered UP DGP to appoint an “independent senior officer” for a fresh inquiry into Bulandshahr’s Ramghat police personnel allegedly taking a vehicle — seized with 19 cartons of country liquor — out of the station “for a raid” and then killing a woman with it while injuring her husband in Mathura in 2021. HC also directed the inquiry be completed within eight weeks and a compliance report submitted before it.
A bench of Justice Anil Kumar on Sept 22 specifically directed the DGP-level inquiry to examine how a seized vehicle was removed from the local police station, the respective roles of the head moharrir (clerk), the two constables and the then- SHO, the circumstances of the fatal accident, the role of then- SSP and the adequacy of the earlier departmental proceedings. The case pertains to a car which was seized by Ramghat police on April 16, 2021, after police allegedly recovered 19 cartons of country-made liquor from it. An FIR was registered under sections 60 and 63 of the UP Excise Act and the vehicle was seized under section 207 of the Motor Vehicles Act. The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the vehicle was taken out pursuant to a diary entry dated June 4, 2021, recorded at 9pm at Ramghat police station. The vehicle met with an accident on June 7 in Mathura’s Raya police station area. An FIR was registered at Raya on June 8 under IPC 279, 338 and 304-A.
HC further directed the inquiry be conducted by a “senior officer who had no connection with Bulandshahr police or the earlier departmental inquiry”. The court, however, did not record any final findings on the criminal liability of the police personnel and said the fresh exercise should ascertain facts and fix responsibility in accordance with law. Confiscation proceedings were subsequently initiated by the district magistrate (DM). Parents of a man, identified as Manoj Kumar, suffered serious injuries and his mother later succumbed. The petitioner alleged that the seized vehicle, while remaining in police custody, had been used by police personnel for their own purposes and that it was again seized by Raya police after the accident. The release of the seized car was rejected by the DM as well as district court. HC also maintained the same.
One of the key questions raised by the court was whether the circumstances — prima facie — disclosed offences relating to theft, criminal misappropriation, criminal breach of trust or any other offence, and if so, “why appropriate criminal action had not been initiated”. The court also asked the inquiry officer to examine the vehicle’s present whereabouts and legal status and its status in the subsequent Mathura case.
Meanwhile, Bulandshahr SSP Dinesh Kumar Singh told TOI Saturday: “A case under BNS 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) and 120B (voluntarily causing hurt to extort confession) was registered against three cops at Ramghat on May 16. An affidavit has also been given by the station in-charge in court, but the same was not properly conveyed. We’ll produce these documents as evidence in the investigation.”