Gauhati HC issues notices to Assam govt, police over Nagaon

The Gauhati High Court has issued notices to the Assam government and police over an alleged conspiracy to suspend a deputy superintendent of police.

Accepting a writ petition filed by Nagaon Deputy Superintendent of Police Sabita Das, who was placed under suspension for allegedly asking for a bribe, the high court issued notices to eight parties Friday.

The court of Justice Manash Ranjan Pathak issued notices to the Assam government, home secretary, home and political secretary, director general of police, additional DGP (administration), additional DGP (law and order), Nagaon superintendent of police and Nagaon Sadar police station officer-in-charge.

The petition by Das was filed on October 9 and was accepted three days later. The next date for hearing was fixed on November 24.

Das claimed in the petition that "she is a victim of departmental rivalry and the whole alleged complaint is an outcome of the intolerant attitude shown by the petitioner towards illegal activities of some of her subordinate officers, who are the blue-eyed boys of some of her superior officers".

"The petitioner (Das) has every reason to believe that the complaint filed against her and the subsequent departmental inquiry is an outcome of the conspiracy done by some of the officials of her department," the writ petition said.

Das alleged the whole procedure of conducting the inquiry against her, based on which the suspension order was issued, was "arbitrary and adopted with malafide intention", making it liable for setting aside and quashing.

"The petitioner through her inquiry reports...has raised question over the nexus of some of the police officials with criminals and also about undisciplined behaviour of some of her subordinate officers, but till date no action has been taken against those police officers," Das alleged.

The suspended DSP also claimed in the petition that she has not received any subsistence allowance till date, making it difficult for her to survive.

When she had enquired about it, the Nagaon SP informed "as the order of suspension did not contain anything about payment of subsistence allowances, hence it cannot be paid to her, which is illegal, arbitrary and not sustainable in law", it said.

The incident took place on the midnight of August 31, when Das picked up four youths for allegedly consuming alcohol inside a car in Nagaon city. The youths could not produce any documents for the car or identity proofs.

They were handed over to the Nagaon Sadar Police Station for further action as per law and were released next afternoon after routine paperwork.

However, on September 3, one of the four, Sourabh Hazarika, claimed that a home guard Jyoti Khound had allegedly sought a bribe of Rs 40,000 on behalf of Das and filed a complaint before the DGP.

A departmental enquiry was conducted by additional DGP (administration) against Das and the report was submitted on September 7, following which she was placed under suspension on September 17.

Das claimed in the writ petition that she was not even informed about the enquiry and her version was not recorded, whereas she came to know about it only after receiving the suspension order.

The DSP had even filed a complaint against Hazarika and Khound on September 5, but no action was initiated.

There was no action or even an inquiry conducted against the homeguard Khound.