The Allahabad High Court has directed that the remaining investigation into a case of alleged disproportionate assets against suspended IPS officer Amitabh Thakur be conducted by an officer of SP rank of the Economic Offences Wing( EOW) and verified by its DGP expeditiously.
The court passed thes order on a petition filed by an officer seeking directions to get investigation of the disproportionate assets case against him at Gomtinagar police station here done by any agency other than the Vigilance Establishment.
A division bench of Justice Ajai Lamba and Justice Akhtar Hussain Khan here gave the order on Monday after hearing the petitioner and government advocate Rishad Murtaza.
According to the government advocate, the court said that the investigation done till now by the Vigilance was correct but in the interest of justice the remaining investigation shall be conducted by an officer not below the rank of SP and verified by the DGP, EOW.
The petitioner's contention was that the FIR against him was registered on an Open Enquiry report presented by Vigilance Director Bhanu Pratap Singh and is now being investigated by Daddan Chaube who is directly subordinate to the Director and hence he will not go against the conclusions made in the previous enquiries, which will make the investigation prima-facie biased.
In reply to it, Murtaza submitted that the investigation was being fairly conducted by an inspector of the Vigilance in accordance with legal provisions along with its vedeography and no harassment was being meted out to the petitioner.
