Stating that the CID notice issued to him to appear and submit documents pertaining to the alleged scam in recruitment process for 545 police sub-inspectors (civil) was aimed at “targeting political opponents”, former Minister and Congress leader Priyank Kharge on Thursday said that the investigating agency is required to discharge its functions and duty strictly in accordance with statutes and law.
“Perhaps, this is a manner in which the present dispensation wants to scuttle and stifle free speech and in the process destroy the democratic fabric to which all of us are aligned under Constitution,” the Chittapur legislator, who earlier refused to appear before the CID, said in a letter to Director-General of Police, CID, on Thursday.
Hours after this letter was made public, Mr. Kharge was served a second summons.
In his letter, pointing to Section 91 of the Criminal Procedure Code referred in the notice, he said that the provision allows the CID the power to summon a person to produce a document or a thing. “In the present instance, your notice being vague and baseless is glaringly in excess of the jurisdiction bestowed upon you by Section 91. You have issued notice not for the purpose of any free and fair investigation, but to placate your political bosses to whom I stand as political opponent,” he said, adding that such exercise of power is not only illegal but also gross abuse of process of law.
Not new
“To summon me or have my attendance as a witness, you must have information to believe that I am acquainted with the facts and circumstances of the case. The present scam is not new in public domain and was first raised by Minister Prabhu Chavan and later a BJP legislator, both of whom have written to the Chief Minister and Home Minister,” said Mr. Kharge, whose press conferences on the issue was the basis for CID notice.
Instead of investigating the crime in earnest, the police are using the notice as a tool to stifle his fundamental right and the right as a member of the Opposition to raise issues of corruption, maladministration and criminal misconduct of the executive and political executive, he said.
