SC terms filing of sedition cases after regime change as disturbing trend, protects suspended IPS officer

Filing of sedition cases when regimes change is a ldquodisturbing trendrdquo the Supreme Court said on Thursday while granting protection from arrest to the suspended Director of Chhattisgarh Police Academy against whom two criminal cases of sedition and amassing of disproportionate assets have been filed by the state governmentState of affairs in the country is sad said a bench headed by Chief Justice N V RamanaGurjinder Pal Singh the 1994batch IPS officer who had served as the IG of Raipur Durg and Bilaspur during the earlier BJP rule was initially booked in the disproportionate assets case following raids at his premises by states AntiCorruption Bureau ACB and Economic Offences Wing EOWAnother case of sedition was invoked against him later on the grounds of his alleged involvement in promoting enmity and hatching a conspiracy against governmentThe bench expressed displeasure over the trend of filing of sedition cases just after senior advocate F S Nariman made opening submissions on behalf of Singh saying ldquothe gentleman has served as the Additional Director General of Police ADGP and was acting as the Director of the Police Academy and now the proceedings under section 124A sedition of the IPC have been initiated against himrdquoAlso Read 326 sedition cases filed in India between 201419 only 6 convictions Home MinistryThe bench which also comprised Justice Surya Kant directed the Congressled state government not to arrest Singh for four weeks in either of the casesIt also directed Singh to cooperate with the agencies in the investigationldquoThis is a very disturbing trend in the country and the police department is also responsible for this When a political party is in power police officials take the side of the particular ruling party Then when another new party comes into power the government initiates action against the police officials This needs to be stoppedrdquo the bench saidThe top court issued the notice on two separate pleas of Singh to the state government represented by senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Rakesh Dwivedi and lawyer Sumeer SodhiAt the outset Nariman said the issue of custodial interrogation of the police officer does not arise as the charge sheet has already been filedThe officer was once called by the present Chief Minister and asked to help in taking action against the former Chief Minister he saidSenior advocate Mukul Rohatgi appearing for the state government opposed Singhs plea saying that he had been the head of the police academy in the state and ldquolook at his conduct he has been abscondingrdquoldquoNo relief such as protection from arrest should be granted to himrdquo Rohatgi arguedldquoWe will consider the sedition case This is a very disturbing trend and the police department itself is responsible for this Do not say this that your client Singh was fair your client must have acted as per the directions of the government of the dayrdquo the bench observedDwivedi also opposed granting any relief to the suspended police officer saying that the probe agency has found disproportionate assets ldquonine times more than the known sources of his incomerdquoSenior lawyer Vikas Singh representing the suspended police officer in the assets case sought protection against any possibility of the arrestRecently the Chhattisgarh High Court has refused to quash the sedition case against the officer who moved the top court against the orderEarlier the Chhattisgarh government had moved the top court by filing caveats in the matter seeking hearing if any order is passed on his pleaAccording to the police the documents recovered during the ACBEOW raids revealed that Singh was allegedly involved in promoting enmity and hatching a conspiracy against the established government and public representatives and was booked under sedition chargesSingh was booked under IPC sections 124A sedition and 153A promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion race place of birth residence language etc of the IPC at Raipurs City Kotwali Police StationHe has sought the case be handed over to the CBI or other independent agencies to ensure a fair probeThe director of the state police academy was suspended on July 5 after the ACBEOW on June 29 registered an FIR under the Prevention of Corruption Act in connection with the disproportionate assets he had allegedly amassedThe ACBEOW which carried a threeday search at around 15 locations linked to Singh from July 1 to 3 claimed to have discovered movable and immovable assets worth around Rs 10 croreDuring the raid at the official residence of Singh torn pieces of paper were also found from the backyard of the house When the pieces were rearranged serious and sensitive contents were found to be written and typed on it the FIR saidldquoThese papers contained objectionable comments against leaders of reputed political parties along with detailed plans of conspiracy Besides secret assessments related to representatives and candidates of different assembly constituencies along with comments on serious issues of the concerned area were also written on it The papers also contained critical comments on several government schemes policies social and religious issuesrdquo it saidSimilarly the raid at Singhs associate Mani Bhushans house unearthed a fivepage document in which comments were written in English against public representatives officials government schemes and policies it addedThe seized documents contain provocative content that can promote hatred and dissatisfaction against the government the FIR saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever