Court rejects G P Singh’s pleas
   Date :24-Jul-2021

Court rejects_1 &nbs
 
In another setback to Gurjinder Pal Singh, the suspended IPS officer, Chhattisgarh High Court has denied to grant interim relief to the officer in the two cases filed against him on the charges of sedition and amassing
disproportionate assets.
After hearing over the applications for interim relief in the two cases, the bench of Justice Narendra Kumar Vyas had reserved the orders on July 20 which was delivered on Friday.
It is to be mentioned here that the State Economic Offence Investigation and Anti-Corruption Bureau (SEOIACB) had registered an FIR against Singh, a 1994-batch IPS officer, under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act on June 29 after preliminary findings into complaints that he had allegedly amassed disproportionate assets. Later, SEOIACB carried a three-day search at around 15 locations linked to the officer from July 1 to July 3 and claimed to have discovered movable and immovable assets worth around Rs 10 crore. Based on the documents recovered during the raids, Raipur police also registered a case on charges of sedition and promoting enmity against Singh, who was suspended on July 5.
Singh had filed separate writ petitions in the HC challenging both the cases and also sought interim relief.
The HC’s order over the application for relief in the sedition case stated that the petitioner had earlier filed an application under section 438 of CrPC which was later withdrawn on the pretext that he has filed a writ petition in the High Court.
“Therefore, grant of any protection would override the section 438 of CrPC. As such, considering the overall material placed before this court and diary of the case, I am of the considered opinion that the petitioner is not entitled to get any interim relief as prayed and the interim application is liable to be dismissed”, the order said.
“From bare perusal of the FIR (on charges of sedition), it is crystal clear that the FIR was registered on July 7 and the petition was filed on July 13 as such it is premature stage of filing the petition. The investigation is in progress and the petitioner can very well rebut the allegations while defending before the competent court of law…. Grant of interim relief “no coercive step” will amount to grant of final relief as the investigation will be stopped and truth will not see the light of the day”, the order said.
The HC while dismissing the application for interim relief in the corruption case, stated in its order that the petitioner has not filed bail application under section 438 of CrPC for grant of anticipatory bail. Therefore grant of protection would override the provisions of section 438 of CrPC. In his application, Singh had prayed that state authority should be directed not to investigate (the disproportionate assets) matter and the case should be transferred to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for probe. He had also prayed that the ACB should be restrained from taking any coercive action against him. The court has asked the state to file its reply within four weeks on both the writ petitions within four weeks and listed the two petitions for hearing after five weeks.