Officials familiar with the situation stated on Sunday that the Chhattisgarh government has ordered investigations into three instances involving suspended Indian Police Service (IPS) officer GP Singh, who was arrested for sedition last week.
According to instructions issued by Director General of Police DM Awasthi on July 14 and 15, three senior IPS officials of the Chhattisgarh police would conduct the investigations.
On July 8, Singh was suspended by the state government after the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and Economic Offence Wing (EOW) raided his premises in connection with a disproportionate assets case. On July 9, he was booked for sedition after documents “promoting enmity” and “conspiracy against the government” were seized during the raids.
As per the first order, a probe has been ordered on a complaint of one Duralabh Agarwal of Raipur, who alleged that the suspended IPS officer, who was investigating a case of police atrocity against his father and uncle in 2013, hushed-up the case. The complaint in this regard was registered with the Chhattisgarh DGP and others on July 12 and will be probed by senior IPS officer Ashok Juneja.
Another probe was ordered on a complaint of Manjit Kaur Bal, a resident of Raipur who accused Singh of helping one criminal, Kamalkant Tiwari, by forging documents and also giving him protection. The complaint in this regard was also filed with the DGP on July 12 and will be investigated by inspector general of police (IGP), Raipur, Anand Chhabra, as per the issued order.
The third case to be investigated by IGP, Durg range, Vivekanand Sinhna, pertains to a complaint in which one Gaynendra Yadav of Rajnandgaon alleged that Singh had ‘misappropriated’ the money which was recovered from Maoist leader Pahad Singh, when he was posted as the IG Durg Range in 2018.
It is worth mentioning here that several searches were conducted at around 15 locations linked to Singh, an additional director general-rank officer, between July 1 and 3. Investigators have claimed to have discovered documents related to movable and immovable assets worth over Rs.10 crore during the raids.
An ACB statement on July 3 said the documents seized during searches at Singh’s premises suggested that he had 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.
