RANCHI: The Jharkhand High Court on Friday stayed till August 11 the arrest of suspended Additional Director General of Police (ADG) Anurag Gupta, the main accused in the alleged horse-trading of MLAs in the Rajya Sabha elections held in 2016.
In a relief to Gupta, the court ordered not to arrest him till August 11, the next date of hearing in the case.
The order was given by a bench of Justice SK Dwivedi which also issued notice to the state government seeking its response in the matter.
The court, however, refused to halt the ongoing investigation against Gupta under Prevention of Corruption Act (PC Act) as per the petition in this case and has given the agency the liberty to continue with its probe.
The suspended ADG has been charged with indulging in horse-trading of legislators in favour of a BJP candidate for the Rajya Sabha seat from Jharkhand in 2016.
The then Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) president Babulal Marandi had lodged a complaitn with the Election Commissiuon in this regard.
An FIR was registered on March 29, 2018 on the instructions of the Election Commission on the basis of a CD in which bailable sections were imposed.
Gupta had filed a petition in the High Court challenging the addition of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PC Act) in the case.
During the hearing, senior Supreme Court advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing on behalf of Gupta, said that the state government has given petition to add PC Act in this case with the intention of harassing Gupta.
The Crime Research Laboratory (Forensic Lab) did not find the CD to be completely accurate and demanded the original device.
Following the High Court order in February 2021, the original device has been sent to a forensic lab for testing.
Even before the report came from there, the research officer has applied in the lower court and demanded the addition of PC Act, the lawyer argued.
He said the provisions of CrPC have not been properly followed in this case and Gupta can be arrested anytime if PC Act is added.
Therefore his arrest should be stopped.
This was contended by the Advocate General of the state government, Rajiv Ranjan who said sufficient evidence has been found against them in the investigation, on the basis of which the research officer has applied in the court to add PC Act.
After this, the High Court stayed the arrest of Gupta till the next date of hearing, directing the state government to file a detailed reply in four weeks.