No bias, was doing my duty: Ex-Rampur DM on ‘pressuring’ complainant
The process for a complaint to be lodged and offence to be made was followed by us,” Aunjaneya Kumar Singh, who is now Moradabad Divisional Commissioner, told The Sunday Express.
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Aunjaneya Kumar Singh was Rampur DM then Days after a Rampur court while acquitting senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan in a 2019 hate speech case noted that the complainant was under pressure from then District Magistrate Aunjaneya Kumar Singh, the senior officer on Saturday denied the charge, saying there was “no bias” on his part.
“There is no question of any bias from my side. I was only doing my duty as an election officer… When the Model Code of Conduct is in place, a lot of things have to be seen by us. The process for a complaint to be lodged and offence to be made was followed by us,” Aunjaneya Kumar Singh, who is now Moradabad Divisional Commissioner, told The Sunday Express.
As Rampur DM, Aunjaneya Kumar Singh was Returning Officer in the 2019 Lok Sabha election in which Khan had made the alleged hate speech.
“The whole speech where objectionable remarks were made by him (Azam Khan) was recorded on camera and it was uploaded on the computer. Then, the video team saw the footage. It was said that there was a delay in lodging of FIR. The process to see and the video footage takes time and hence, the FIR was lodged after the due process was followed,” Singh added.
On the court’s taking note of election officer Anil Kumar Chauhan’s statement that he had lodged the complaint against Khan “under pressure” from him, Singh said: “He (Chauhan) was directed to take action by the Returning Officer, which was me. After the team that sees the video footage told me that there were objectionable parts in the speech, I directed the concerned authority to take action… It was not his choice, and he is duty-bound.”
“During his initial statement in the court, Chauhan said that he file the case under my pressure. During cross-examination, he defined ‘pressure’ and said he was not under pressure. He said he was told to do so,” he added.
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