Ex-IPS officer pressured Dalit man to file harassment FIR against Cong MLA officials police

Jaipur, Aug 11 (PTI) Two weeks after an FIR was lodged against Congress MLA Gopal Meena and five police officers for harassing a Dalit man here, officials Friday dismissed the allegations as “false” and “baseless”.
     Preliminary investigation suggested that the the FIR was registered at the behest of a ex-IPS officer Navdeep Singh to mount pressure on police to close a case registered against him in a land-related dispute, Rajasthan Police said in a statement issued here.
     Meena allegedly forced the Dalit man to lick his shoe and an officer urinated on him, while other police officers beat him up, according to the complaint registered on July 27.
     The politician, too, refuted the charges and said that fake allegations have been made against him due to a property-related dispute.
     “It is a tactic to mount pressure on me. Some people want me to help them with illegal land encroachment. I do not know the man who registered this case,” the Jamwa Ramgarh MLA said.
     The dispute revolves around a piece of land where tribals and Dalits reside, the police statement said.
     However, Singh, who retired in 2018 as DG Home Guard, said he was not behind the registration of the FIR in the matter.
     The FIR was lodged on July 27 on a court's direction under Sections 363 (kidnapping), 448 (house trespassing), 323 (causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 342 (wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code and SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the police said.
     The complainant alleged that Circle Officer Shivkumar Bhardwaj urinated on him post the incident, which occurred on June 30 when the police picked him up while he was working in a farm and took him to a place where the MLA forced him to lick his shoe.
     Jamwa Ramgarh SHO Sitaram Saini said that after the case was registered, the matter was sent to CID (CB) for investigation. He added that apart from the Circle Officer, the SHOs of four police stations have been named in the FIR.
     The police statement called the allegations "false" and "baseless", adding, “It is notable that Navdeep Singh is having a dispute with the local tribal and Dalit people living on the land in Todaldi Aandhi village of Jamvaramgarh area," the statement said.
     To remove the tribals and Dalits from the particular land, Singh allegedly used his influence and called the patwari of another area and wanted to get demarcation, the statement said.
     The particular Patwari was suspended by the district collector as he tried delegating duties outside his jurisdiction, it added.
     “A case was registered by the local residents against him (Singh) under various sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The case was being investigated by Circle Officer Shiv Kumar Bhardwaj," the statement said, adding that the ex-IPS officer started putting undue pressure on police to close the case immediately.
     The Rajasthan police also said that Singh has several criminal cases registered against him.
     When contacted, Singh said the land was purchased in the name of his wife's company but the local officers were creating hurdles in the demarcation of the land, which was to be done by a Patwari.
     “The local officers are under the influence of the MLA. The demarcation was scheduled on June 30 but it was not done because the officers wanted instructions from the MLA,” he said.
     “I am not behind the FIR. It is for the complainant to say what allegations he has made,” he added.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)