THE LUCKNOW bench of the Allahabad High Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate allegations that a 29-year-old man was assaulted and falsely accused in theft cases after he allegedly refused to give his vehicle to police personnel who claimed to be acting at the behest of the Superintendent of Police, Raebareli, Abhishek Kumar Agarwal. The court ordered that the SIT should comprise officers senior to the officers facing the allegations, including SP Agarwal. It instructed that the SIT report should be submitted within two months, with the next hearing scheduled for July 3. The petitioner, Gomati Mishra (70), alleged that her son Alakh Mishra was arrested by the police on the intervening night of March 30 and 31. The entire episode was captured on a CCTV camera at a petrol pump from where the arrest was made, according to the petitioner. However, the police recorded his arrest only a day later in a theft case, the petitioner claimed. The petitioner alleged that her son, who holds an MBA degree and does not have any criminal record, was falsely implicated in a theft case because he refused to provide his taxi (private vehicle) to Abhishek Agarwal, who is Superintendent of Police, Raebareli, when asked to do so by some of Agarwal's subordinate officers. The court pointed out that despite time being granted on multiple occasions, till date the opposite parties – the police officers concerned – are not in a position to reply as to why no investigation was conducted by them with regard to the alleged arrest. The court also said that the stand of the police officers concerned is that the son of petitioner was arrested in the intervening night of March 31 and April 1, as per the case diary. In its order, the court stated that “in the given circumstances, we find it a fit case to refer the matter to the Director General of Police, UP, Lucknow, who shall get a SIT constituted of persons superior to the police officers concerned, including Abhishek Agarwal, Superintendent of Police, Raebareli, to investigate the entire incident.” In her petition, Gomati Mishra sought directions to register an FIR against all the “erring” police personnel at Kheero and Sarauni police stations in Raebareli who were involved in the “wrongful confinement, custodial torture and filing of false cases” against her son, Alakh Mishra. She also requested a fair investigation into the three cases in which her son was booked, as well as compensation from the state government for the violation of his Fundamental Right guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. She also sought directions to preserve footage of the CCTV installed at the petrol pump and Kheero police station in Raebareli. Gomati Mishra's lawyer, PRS Bajpai said, “Alakh Mishra has obtained bail in the case and is currently out. He remained in jail for around a week.”
