How DIG Tripathi was nailed

Hello! This is the word, allegedly spoken in a characteristic manner by the now suspended Uttar Pradesh DIG Prisons Sheshmani Tripathi, t...

Hello! This is the word, allegedly spoken in a characteristic manner by the now suspended Uttar Pradesh DIG Prisons Sheshmani Tripathi, that gave his identity away. Lucknow Police say they took almost a month to establish that the voice they had recorded on April 27 this year speaking to two mafia dons lodged in Lucknow jail belonged to the DIG. Finally, they convinced a close relative of the DIG to call him up. A voice modulation test was the clincher.

A day after SSP Navniet Sekera made the sensational disclosure by presenting tapes carrying recorded conversation between the DIG and mafia dons Manish Tiwari and Atul Singh, details emerged about how the DIG was 8216;8216;nailed8217;8217; though he himself has denied the charge.

SSP Sekera said: 8216;8216;We knew soon after April 27, the day of the conversation, that the prisoners had talked to some senior jail official as Atul Singh8217;s phone was under surveillance. We ascertained the address of the recipient number to learn that it was the Gomti Nagar residence of DIG Sheshmani Tripathi. Still, we wanted to be triply sure as such a senior official was involved.8217;8217;

A voice modulation kit for scientific testing was then requisitioned from Delhi and the process took almost 15 days. Meanwhile, a close relative of the DIG, whose name is being kept secret, was taken into confidence by the police and convinced that he should call up the DIG. 8216;8216;The 8216;hello8217; spoken by the DIG this time matched perfectly with the 8216;hello8217; on the tape. We then made the relative talk to the DIG longer and tried to extract some more words that he had spoken on tape earlier. They too matched like a carbon copy. After the voice matched, we came out with the whole matter,8217;8217; said Sekera.

The matter today created a storm in the state administrative and police circles. Jagjit Singh, Principal Secretary Prisons suspended the DIG late last night. Sekera said the Crime Branch would be acting as a complainant in the case to be lodged against the DIG.

Atul Singh, who was at the Lucknow district court today for a hearing, said: 8216;8216;I don8217;t have any mobile inside jail. This is all a concocted story of the SSP.8221;

SSP will have to pay a price for this, says Tripathi

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DIG Jails Sheshmani Tripathi first denied even knowing Manish Tiwari or Atul Singh, stating that he had not even heard of them. But confronted with the tapes, the DIG conceded he knew both Manish Tripathi, he says, is the son of a former DM of Amethi but hadn8217;t ever spoken to them.

Then he went on to attack SSP Navniet Sekera. 8216;8216;These tapes are all a conspiracy by Sekera. He wants to get a Padmashree and cheap popularity by dragging in the name of a senior officer like me. I am a DIG but of the addl DG-scale. I deserve to be a DG. In fact, I am a misaal example of efficiency and want to set an example in the department that we should show no sympathy with prisoners. SSP ko chahiye ke mujhe dekh ke baat kare. Sekera will have to pay the price for this. Even my son has been implicated in false cases ,8217;8217; he said. His son, Swantantra Mani Tripathi, was booked in a murder case in Sultanpur district as well as under NSA. Some days ago, he was arrested for threatening a person.