COURTESY HT FEB 10

DIG suspended, granted bail by Ambala court
The court has asked the cop to join investigations within three days

DIG (vigilance) Ashok Kumar
Bhavey Nagpal

letterschd@hindustantimes.com

Ambala : Two days after deputy inspector general (DIG), vigilance, Ambala Range, Ashok Kumar, was booked for allegedly assaulting Kapil Vij, the brother of Haryana home minister and Ambala Cantt MLA Anil Vij, the state government suspended him with immediate effect on Tuesday.

In an order issued by the home ministry, additional chief secretary Rajeev Arora said, “...During suspension, his headquarters will be the office of RTC/Bhondsi, Gurugram.”

Earlier in the day, the court of additional sessions judge Sundeep Singh granted Kumar an interim bail and asked him to join investigations within three days. The next hearing of the case will take place on February 16.

While issuing the bail order, the court, with reference to observations made by the Supreme Court in the cases of “Arnab Manorajan Goswami versus the State of Maharashtra (2020)” and “Romila Thaper versus Union of India (2018)”, and by Justice Krishna Iyer in State of Rajasthan Versus Bal Chand (1977), said that “...when both parties are equally influential and there is no likelihood of petitioner absconding on account of his regular long standing service in the police department…his ‘right to liberty’ deserves to be protected. More so, in a case which neither warrants any recovery nor any custodial interrogation.” On Monday, the court had stayed his arrest for a day, asking the state to file response to the bail application. The FIR in this regard was lodged under Sections 294 (obscene act), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.

Kapil Vij had alleged that while he was attending a birthday party at Sirhind Club in Cantt where Kumar was also invited, the officer “under the influence of alcohol and without any provocation” started abusing him and his family. He also accused the cop of making obscene gestures at him while leaving. While appearing for the accused/petitioner in the case, his counsel Satinder Singh Garg argued that there was no assault as alleged, no specific mention of the obscene words/act which were uttered and no violent act was done by Kumar.

Garg also placed four photographs, out of which three purportedly showed that Kumar was not having alcohol and fourth purportedly showed Kapil Vij sitting at a table with a glass of drink in front of him. It was alleged that the complainant was misusing the position of his brother Anil Vij and had rudely told Kumar to serve him at the party. Public prosecutor Rajesh Dhull and Vij’s counsel Priya Sharma contended that if granted bail, Kumar would try to influence the witnesses and as an officer on duty, he was armed with a service revolver