Suspended IPS officer surrenders before Patna court in criminal conspiracy case

Patna, Dec 5 (IANS) Suspended IPS officer, Aditya Kumar, surrendered before Patna civil court on Tuesday in connection with a criminal conspiracy case.

An FIR was registered against Aditya Kumar in the Economic Offence Unit (EOU) police station in Patna where he is facing the charges of corruption and criminal conspiracy in a liquor prohibition case during his tenure as Gaya's Senior Superintended of Police (SSP).

Aditya Kumar had been absconding for the last two years. He had applied for bail from Patna High Court and Supreme Court but was rejected by the respective courts. After the Supreme Court rejected his bail plea two weeks ago directing him to surrender before the authorities till December 6, he did the same a day earlier in Patna civil court.

“Aditya Kumar had been a fugitive for the last two year. He was involved in benefiting liquor mafias in Gaya and he was suspended from the department in the past. Following that he took the help of an imposter Abhishek Agrawal who called then Bihar DGP SK Singhal posing as then chief justice of Patna high court Sanjay Karol to take favours. He was facing non-bailable warrant and hence his anticipatory bail was rejected,” said Rishikesh Narayan Sinha, the prosecution lawyer of this case.

Abhishek Agrawal, posing as Sanjay Karol, the then chief justice of Patna high court, made over 30 calls to then Bihar DGP from a phone number having DP (Display Picture) of the chief justice in the mid of July 2022. Interestingly, Singhal, in its report pointed out 'Mistake of Facts' in the case and gave clean chit to Aditya Kumar.

The 2011 batch IPS officer, Aditya Kumar, who was the SSP of Gaya, was booked under relevant sections of the IPC in Fatehpur police station. Besides him, SHO of Fatehpur named Sanjay Kumar, was also a co-accused.

After the clean-chit to Aditya Kumar, the case file reached the chief minister secretariat. The officials of the chief minister secretariat found something fishy in the report and they had transferred it to EOU for a thorough investigation.

The EOU officials used cyber cell officials to scan the phone numbers which were used to call senior police officials who have prepared the report including Bihar DGP SK Singhal.

During the investigation, it was found that two numbers were used by Abhishek Agrawal to call the DGP. He had also put the DP of chief justice Sanjay Karol on these two numbers. Several times, the DGP called him on this number. Sometimes, Agrawal sent messages to him and said that he was busy. The DGP made an appointment on WhatsApp to contact him on the phone.

During investigation, it was also revealed that the FIR lodged in EOU police station in Patna said that Aditya Kumar met with Abhishek Agrawal in a restaurant in Patna’s Boring road to prepare the plan. Accordingly, Abhishek posed as chief justice.

The EOW in its investigation found that the phone numbers used to call DGP did not belong to the chief justice of Patna high court. The number was put under surveillance and EOU officials secretly nabbed Abhishek Agrawal.

During interrogation, Agrawal confessed that he was having close links with suspended SSP Aditya Kumar for the last 5 years.