Lucknow, Jun 7 The Allahabad High Court has pulled up UP Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Sanjay Prasad over the delay in the investigation and alleged non-compliance with its directions in a criminal case of misappropriation of property.
Irked by "inconsistencies" in the personal affidavit filed by Prasad, the High Court's Lucknow bench observed that the official appeared to have little regard for court orders and issued him a show-cause notice asking why directions should not be issued to the Uttar Pradesh government to take action against him in accordance with law.
The court observed that if such a casual approach was being adopted in a case being monitored by the High Court itself, the condition of other investigations could be easily imagined.
"The conduct on the part of the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) can well be understood, who as it prima facie emerges, does not even care about the orders which are being issued by this Court," the bench comprising Justice Abdul Moin and Justice Pramod Kumar Srivastava said while hearing a criminal writ petition filed by Gayatri Devi.
The court sought an explanation from the Chief Secretary and directed both officials to file personal affidavits. It warned that if the affidavits are not submitted, they will have to appear in person before the court on July 15 to explain their stand.
The order was passed on May 20 and uploaded on the court website on Sunday (June 7).
The petitioner had sought a fair and effective investigation into an FIR registered at PGI police station in Lucknow on January 9, 2025. The case pertains to allegations of criminal breach of trust, cheating and dishonest misappropriation of property.
Expressing displeasure over the pace of the investigation, the bench noted that despite repeated court orders and assurances by investigating officers, the probe had failed to make meaningful progress even after more than a year.
In the earlier orders passed on April 13 and April 29, the bench had expressed serious concerns as to why the accused were not being arrested.
In the order passed on April 29, the bench had sought a personal affidavit of ACS (Home) regarding the progress of the investigation.
However, when the personal affidavit was filed on May 20, the court was not satisfied as no material headway was made in the investigation, and none of the four accused were arrested.
The bench further noted that the personal affidavit filed by Prasad contained several inconsistencies, indicating that earlier observations and directions of the court had not been taken seriously.
In its order, the court directed the Chief Secretary to clarify the government's position regarding the shortcomings pointed out in the orders.
It also sought an explanation as to under whose directions Special Secretary Mahendra Singh had instructed DCP (South) Amit Kumar Anand to leave his official work and appear before the court despite there being no judicial order requiring his presence.
