PATNA: The decks have been cleared for a Bihar cadre IAS officer of 2013 batch, who had sought change of cadre due to what he described as threats to his life in the State after being framed by the police in a false case, to join the Haryana cadre.
“I am very happy with the judicial verdict in my favour,” said Dr Jitendra Gupta on Wednesday about the Supreme Court’s direction to the central government’s department of personnel and training (DoPT) to change his cadre.
In its judgment on a writ petition filed by the officer, the apex court said on Tuesday that his fundamental rights had been violated during his tenure in Bihar.
The verdict is being widely seen as an indictment of Bihar’s Nitish Kumar-led government, which recently faced strong resentment from bureaucrats serving in the State. No functionary of the government was willing to talk on Gupta’s change of cadre to Haryana.
During his very first posting as the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) in Kaimur district, Gupta was arrested by vigilance department sleuths in an alleged bribery case in July 2016. It was alleged that he had accepted a bribe of
Rs 80,000 from transporters to allow overloaded trucks to pass unhindered in Mohania. Gupta, despite his claims of innocence, spent a month in jail before getting bail.
He was placed under suspension within a week of his arrest. The then DGP (vigilance), Ravindra Kumar, had said that there was enough evidence in support of the bribery charges against him. But in October 2016, Patna High Court quashed the FIR registered against him and said he was falsely implicated in the case.
The HC order exonerating Gupta of all charges was upheld by the Supreme Court, which agreed that he was framed. The top court also expressed displeasure over the Bihar government’s inaction on Gupta’s representation.
Gupta had claimed during his arrest that he was framed by the then Kaimur SP Harpreet Kaur because he had written to her a letter saying police have no right to examine documents of trucks on national highways. Kaur had, however, rubbished the allegations.