HC stays order directing DGP to probe Balaghat case

Bhopal/Jabalpur: A division bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court stayed the order of a single-judge bench directing the director general of police (DGP) to personally conduct a probe in a criminal case registered in Balaghat district and book the then station house officer (SHO) and the investigating officer in the case under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The present stay order was issued in a case regarding non-compliance with the court order. The matter stems from the petition filed by one Atul Mandelkar, a resident of Balaghat, before the court of chief judicial magistrate (CJM) against the closure report filed by the police in 2017 in a case registered following his complaint. CJM had then dismissed the closure report and ordered a fresh inquiry into the case.

Mandelkar then filed a petition before the high court alleging that the police had not complied with the CJM’s order.

While hearing the petition, the single-judge bench of high court had asked the district SP to present an affidavit in the matter. The court later found out that the Balaghat SP had not complied with the order and had handed over the case investigation to the additional SP.

Taking exception to the conduct of the Balaghat police officials, Justice Ahluwalia said that when district police are not willing to take the orders of the court seriously, he was left with no option but to hand over the inquiry to the DGP so he can realise the “mala fide actions” of the police officials in Balaghat, jeopardising the legal rights of common citizens.

The court had specified that the DGP would conduct an inquiry himself and not delegate the job to any other officer. The court had also asked to register a case against the then SHO of Kotwali police station in Balaghat and the investigating officer in the case under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The court also ordered DGP to fix responsibility of Balaghat SP, additional SP, CSP, present SHO of Kotwali police station, the then SHO and the investigating officer.

The state govt had appealed against this order of the single-judge bench.

Hearing the revision petition of the state govt, the bench of Chief Justice Ravi Malimath and Justice Vishal Mishra stayed the order of the single-judge bench and said that the petition would be heard along with the petitions filed by the three police officials of Balaghat.

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