Court pulls up Noida Police for not conducting proper probe

A Delhi court today pulled up Noida Police for not conducting a proper probe in an FIR lodged by a man who was allegedly assaulted for filing a complaint against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his relative.
The official of Noida Police submitted before the court that the incident alleged by complainant Viplav Awasthi could not be substantiated and that the complaint was false.
Metropolitan Magistrate Abhilash Malhotra, who was unhappy with the report of Noida Police, said that without probing the allegations, the agency cannot come to a conclusion that the complaint was false.
The police filed the status report in pursuance to the court's earlier order on assessing the threat perception to the complainants.

"How will the court do scrutiny? You have not filed any document. You have done everything orally. Will the court do scrutiny on your oral submission? There is no file or document. You have not brought the case diary," the magistrate said and asked the official of Noida Police to file a detailed report on April 26.
Three FIRs have been lodged at different police stations in Delhi and Noida alleging that the complainants were threatened and assaulted after they filed a criminal complaint in the court against Kejriwal, his brother-in-law Surender Bansal, proprietor of a construction firm, and a public servant for alleged irregularities in the grant of contracts or roads and sewer lines in Delhi.

Meanwhile, the Anti-Corruption Branch, which is probing the allegations of irregularities against Kejriwal and others, also filed a detailed status report on assessment of threat perception to the three complainants in the matter including Awasthi.

The ACB said in its report that enquiries are being made from the complainants in the three FIRs and from police stations where the cases have been lodged against the alleged threat.
The court, after perusing the status report, listed it for consideration on April 26, the next date of hearing.
The court had earlier expressed unhappiness over an "unsatisfactory" report of the ACB on threat perception to the complainants in the alleged scam.

The court had earlier also asked the Delhi Police's Economic Offence Wing (EOW) to assess the threat perception and provide security to the complainants but no action has been taken and later the case was transferred to the ACB.
The court was hearing a complaint filed by Rahul Sharma, the founder of Roads Anti-Corruption Organisation (RACO), for direction to police to lodge an FIR against Kejriwal, his brother-in-law Surender Bansal, proprietor of a construction firm, and a public servant for alleged irregularities in the grant of contracts for roads and sewer lines in Delhi.
Advocate Kislay Pandey, appearing for Sharma, has alleged "deep-rooted corruption" and said the documents showed no material was actually purchased for executing the projects.

The complainant has alleged that documents showing purchase of material were "concocted and forged", and a loss of over Rs 10 crore has been caused to the public exchequer.
The complainant alleged that Bansal operated through several dummy firms to obtain government contracts with the connivance of several senior PWD officials.
These contracts never got executed "whereas shockingly all the payments were cleared under pressure from Kejriwal", he alleged.