Suspended IPS officer booked for sedition in Chhattisgarh

An FIR against Singh under IPC’s Sections 124 A (sedition) and 153 A (hate speech) was registered on ACB and EOW’s complaint at Raipur’s Kotwali police station on Thursday night. It cited the alleged incriminatory documents recovered during the raid

Raipur: The Chhattisgarh Police on Friday booked suspended Indian Police Service (IPS) officer GP Singh for sedition citing documents “promoting enmity” and “conspiracy against the government” allegedly recovered in the raids at his premises last week. Singh was suspended after the state’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and Economic Offences Wing (EOW) raided his premises in connection with a case related to disproportionate assets.

Representational Image. (File photo)

A First Information Report (FIR) against Singh under the Indian Penal Code’s Sections 124 A (sedition) and 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc) was registered on ACB and EOW’s complaint at Raipur’s Kotwali police station on Thursday night. It cited the allegedly incriminatory documents recovered during the raid.

HT has seen a copy of the FIR, which said the seized documents contain “provocative contents that can promote hatred and dissatisfaction against the constitutionally formed government”.

The FIR said the case has been registered on the basis of a 48-page document ACB and EOW submitted after a primary investigation. “The documents submitted by the ACB were examined after taking legal opinion. An FIR has been registered under sections related to sedition and hate speech,” said a police officer, who did not want to be named.

The FIR said ACB recovered pieces of torn papers and when they were rearranged, “serious and sensitive contents were found”. “Objectionable comments against leaders of reputed political parties along with detailed plans of conspiracy were mentioned in these papers. Secret analysis related to representatives and candidates of different assembly constituencies along with comments on serious issues of the concerned area were also written on seized papers. The papers also contained comments on several government schemes, policies, social and religious issues,” the FIR said.

It was not immediately clear who these people and parties were.

Singh moved the Chhattisgarh high court against the sedition case and sought a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the matter, said his lawyer Kishore Bhaduri. “We are also filing an interim relief application in a lower court,” said Bhaduri.

Kanak Tiwari, a former advocate general of Chhattisgarh, said the FIR is inconclusive and does not mention anything in elaboration. “Whatever may or may not constitute the offence of sedition will be the subject of inquiry. In this regard, the Supreme Court judgment in the Kedarnath Singh case in 1962 is the ultimate authority to determine whether an offence is made out or not, but the facts are not brought in detail in FIR.”

The 1962 judgment laid down the fundamental requirements--incitement to violence or public disorder--before registration of a sedition case.

Searches were earlier conducted at around 15 locations linked to Singh, an additional director general-rank officer, from July 1 to July 3. Investigators have claimed to have discovered documents related to movable and immovable assets worth over ₹10 crore during the raids.

An ACB statement on July 3 said the documents seized during searches at Singh’s premises established he allegedly amassed assets disproportionate to his known sources of income and indulged in a “massive exchange of money”.

“Singh also allegedly tried to commit money laundering by investing in shell companies,” the statement said.

Singh, a 1994-batch IPS officer, served as additional director general of ACB and EOW before he was transferred to the state police academy in June last year.