Supreme Court Refuses Protection To Suspended Chhattisgarh IPS Officer In Corruption Case

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to grant protection to suspended Additional Director General of Police Gurjinder Pal Singh in a case filed against him under the Prevention of Corruption Act for allegations of disproportionate assets.

A Bench comprising CJI NV Ramana, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Hima Kohli dismissed Singh's special leave petition filed against Chattisgarh High Court's order denying to give him interim protection against the arrest and stay in further proceedings in the FIR lodged against him under Section 13(3)b) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The relief is being sought for the time during pendency of the main petition pending before the High Court for quashing of the impugned FIR.

Senior Advocate Rohatgi and Advocate Sumeer Sodhi appeared for the state and Senior Advocate UR Lalit and Advocate Bansuri Swaraj appeared for the petitioner. 

Senior Advocate UR Lalit today made submissions before the Court arguing that the impugned FIR is totally defective, and arising out of political vindictiveness. The Court however dismissed the matter. 

According to petitioner, frivolous FIRs were filed against him for not obliging unduly to the current dispensation of the Government in the State of Chhattisgarh.

The present special leave petition has submitted that concerning one Nagrik Aapurti Nigam scam popularly known as NAN scam in the state of Chattiscarh, the petitioner was repeatedly forced, as Economic Offences Wing/Anti- Corruption Bureau, to proceed against previous Chic Minister and his wife. However when he showed his disability to it because according to his opinion the material available was not sufficient enough to proceed against the CM and his wife, malicious political vendetta started against him in the form of multiple frivolous preliminary enquiries.

The petitioner has submitted that the respondents did not even seek the mandatory approval from the petitioner's department which is a Compulsory statutory requirement before lodging an inquiry or FIR against any public servant and thereby the Respondents have thrown away such compliance inanxiety of securing the physical custody of petitioner just to harass him.

The Court had in October last year granted Singh protection in the sedition and extortion case filed against him.

The State Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and Economic Offences Wing (EOW) had registered an FIR against Singh, under the Prevention of Corruption Act on June 29 after preliminary findings into complaints that he had allegedly amassed disproportionate assets.

On July 1, 2021, the residence of the petitioner was raided by the police and they allegedly found some pieces of papers in a drain behind the house of the petitioner which were later on reconstructed by them into some notes, criticize, statistics report against political party and against few representatives of the various wings of the State.

The contents of the reconstructed documents have been alleged to be illicit vengeance and hatred against the State Government and as a result of which, an FIR against him was registered against him for committing offence under Sections 124A & 153A of I.P.C.

Case : Gurjinder Pal Singh v. State of Chhattisgarh and others

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