RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh police have booked suspended additional director general of police G P Singh, a 1994 batch IPS officer, on charges of “sedition and promoting enmity”, less than a week after a three-day anti-corruption bureau raid.
It’s the first time in Chhattisgarh -- perhaps the country -- that an IPS officer has been booked for sedition.
Chief minister Bhupesh Baghel said action was taken against him on the basis of some papers seized during the searches, and a minister hinted at a “conspiracy to destabilise the government”.
Singh has since moved high court, alleging that he is being victimised, and seeking a probe by an “independent agency, like CBI”, into the sedition case against him.
The FIR was filed at Raipur Kotwali police station around midnight on Thursday under IPC Section 124A for sedition and 153A for promoting enmity. Police didn’t make a copy of the FIR public on its citizen portal, saying it’s a sensitive case.
On Friday, CM Baghel himself explained the circumstances. He told reporters in Raipur that the sedition FIR against the senior IPS officer was registered on the basis of certain documents seized by the ACB during raids on his premises and other places over alleged disproportionate assets.
The searches had been carried out from July 1 to 3, after which the ACB issued a statement that assets worth Rs 10 crore and Rs 16 lakh cash had been seized, along with several documents.
Police sources said certain documents submitted by the ACB and economic offences wing (EOW) formed the basis of the FIR. “We are not ruling out arrest,” the sources said.
The IPS officer is learnt to be moving to a lower court in Raipur for anticipatory bail. He filed a writ petition in the HC in the afternoon, seeking an urgent hearing. He said the action against him was “prejudiced and aimed at trapping him”.
State food minister Amarjeet Singh Bhagat said, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. It appears that there was a big conspiracy to destabilise the government. More people might have been involved in this. It’s a matter of investigation.”
Leader of the opposition Dharamlal Kaushik said: “It’s a serious matter. The government must make public all documents on the basis of which the sedition case was registered. People of the state have the right to know.”
