Noting that an IPS officer is missing for many months was a “serious issue,” the Allahabad High Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh government to investigate if suspended Superintendent of Police of Mahoba Manilal Patidar, who is absconding since being accused of abetment of suicide of a businessman, was dead or alive and what efforts were made to apprehend him.
The family of Mahoba businessman Indrakant Tripathi – who died last September after being found shot in his car days after he had accused the 2014-batch IPS officer of threatening to eliminate him — had lodged an FIR against Mr. Patidar, then district police chief, under murder and conspiracy. However, following a probe by a Special Investigation Team the charges were downgraded to abetment to suicide. Mr. Patidar, meanwhile, continued to evade arrest and his pleas for anticipatory bail were rejected by the court.
In an order dated May 27, the HC directed the agency investigating the cases against Mr. Patidar to file an affidavit explaining what efforts were made by them to arrest him after tracing his whereabouts when his anticipatory bail applications were rejected. The court also asked if any complaint or representation had been received at any level from the family members of the IPS officer of him having become untraceable, if so, what action was taken on such complaint.
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A division bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Syed Aftab Husain Rizvi was hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by advocate Mukut Nath Verma on behalf of the officer. Mr. Verma prayed that the investigation into the matter be conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The court has further asked the investigating agency if it has put on surveillance the mobile numbers used by Mr. Patidar and found his last location.
Mr. Verma argued that Mr. Patidar had been conducting operations against mining mafia as SP Mahoba but was falsely implicated in a few cases as his relationship with “certain section in the administration got sour.”
On November 15, 2020, Mr. Patidar made a Whatsapp call to his lawyer to inform him he would be coming to meet him on November 27 in connection with pending legal matters but he did not come, said Mr. Verma.
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The petitioner expressed apprehension that high-ranking officials in the state administration might have done something foul as a consequence of which Mr. Patidar had gone missing and was not traceable. He claimed Mr. Patidar was going to unravel some foul play in the administration.
Manish Goyal, additional advocate general, representing the state submitted that since Mr. Patidar was trying to evade his arrest, he got the habeas corpus petition filed with an oblique purpose to malign the administration.
After hearing both sides, the court said: “as the case of the petitioner is that Mani Lal Patidar has gone missing and even counsel for the respondents does not dispute that Mani Lal Patidar is not traceable, the matter will have to be investigated to find out where Mani Lal Patidar is as also whether he is dead or alive.”
