Family of U.P. businessman demands bounty on absconding IPS officer

The household of Mahoba businessman Indrakant Tripathi — who died in September after being discovered shot in his automobile days after he had accused an IPS officer of threatening to kill him — on Sunday demanded {that a} bounty be introduced in opposition to the absconding officer Manilal Patidar who continues to evade arrest.

While an FIR beneath homicide and conspiracy prices was lodged in opposition to Mr. Patidar and others initially on the criticism of the household of Tripathi, the costs had been downgraded to abetment to suicide following a probe by a Special Investigation Team.

The stress mounted on Mr. Patidar ever because the Allahabad High Court on November 2 dismissed his plea searching for safety from arrest and quashing of the FIR in opposition to him. A Division Bench of Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Siddhartha Varma mentioned, “…we do not find any just reason to interfere in the matter as that discloses commission of a cognizable offence.”

The courtroom, nonetheless, mentioned Mr. Patidar was at liberty to maneuver an utility for anticipatory bail beneath Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Uttar Pradesh Amendment, 1973).

Two months after the incident, the police are but to arrest Mr. Patidar, who faces a non-bailable warrant, drawing issues from the household of the deceased.

Ravikant Tripathi, brother of Indrakant, alleged that the police had been ‘complicating’ the investigation by not arresting the officer and ‘protecting’ him.

He demanded that the suspended IPS officer be declared a fugitive, his property be seized and he be arrested on the earliest for “safeguarding of evidence and our safety”.

“Our entire family is in terror. Who knows what incident will take place involving us. Manilal Patidar can get us all killed,” Mr. Ravikant informed The Puucho. “Till he is arrested we don’t know in what direction the case would be pushed under pressure.”

Mr. Ravikant requested that if the officer was untraceable, then how was he in a position to file pleas within the HC.

Ashutosh Mishra, investigation officer, mentioned police groups had been raiding a number of areas together with Dungarpur in Rajasthan, the officer’s hometown, in search of him.

“We are raiding his locations as well as those of his relatives. Non-bailable warrants have been issued against those yet to be arrested,” Mr. Mishra mentioned.

Asked in regards to the demand for a bounty, Mr. Mishra mentioned a correct courtroom course of could be adopted and that normally such orders had been issued after a specific interval in investigation.

On September 5, in a letter to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and thru a social media video, Indrakant had alleged that Mr. Patidar, then SP Mahoba, was threatening to kill him after he refused to pay him ₹6 lakh monthly as extortion sum. Two days later, Indrakant was present in his luxurious automobile with a bullet wound in his neck. He succumbed to his damage per week later. The Uttar Pradesh authorities fashioned a SIT to probe the matter.

The SIT concluded that the businessman might have shot himself and mentioned he was shot along with his personal pistol from shut vary. However, the SIT controversially reached the conclusion even with out interrogating the primary accused — the suspended IPS officer.

Mr. Patidar was not in a position to flip up for questioning as he was COVID-19 constructive, his lawyer had knowledgeable the SIT then.

Unable to digest the police idea, Mr. Ravikant mentioned every thing could be clear after Mr. Patidar is arrested and goes by means of a Narco check. “Had he been a petty criminal, his property would have been seized and his house demolished by now,” mentioned Mr. Ravikant.