Individual used office meant for police special branch, govt says probe on

The state government was conducting a probe into a private individual allegedly using office meant for Jharkhand police special branch for around two years in 2018 to 2019, and will fix responsibility after completing the investigation in two months, parliamentary affairs minister Alamgir Alam said in the Assembly onMonday

The state government was conducting a probe into a private individual allegedly using office meant for Jharkhand police special branch for around two years in 2018 to 2019, and will fix responsibility after completing the investigation in two months, parliamentary affairs minister Alamgir Alam said in the Assembly onMonday.

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The issue was raised in the House by independent legislator Saryu Roy, who demanded an independent probe either by the anti-corruption branch or an Assembly committee into the matter. “The matter has substance and probe is on. We are hopeful of completing the probe soon. If it is not completed in two months, we will take a call on roping in another agency,” said Alam.

Roy, the Jamshedpur (East) legislator, through a short notice question sought to know if an “illegal” special branch office was functional between 2015 and 2019, wherein a private individual was “handling illegal operations” of the police’s special branch from a building that was provided by the buildings department on request of the home department.

In its written reply, while the home department denied of any such operation, it accepted that two buildings were sought for office they were sanctioned in February 2018. While one of them was used as a special branch office, the other one was used as residence by a private individual.

“Till now there is no evidence of any private individual handling illegal operations of the special branch. However, there is some evidence of the individual availing government facilities, that is being probed by the police department,” the department said in its written reply.

Dissatisfied with the reply, Roy pointed out that the minister was not provided with the relevant details. He said he possessed information that the person who used the said premise was named Baidynath Prasad and investigators have already recorded statements of three police officers in the matter.

The minister then assured the house that probe by the concerned authorities was likely to be over in two months.