IPS officer's friend, family named in disproportionate assets case

Raipur: The Chhattisgarh Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has added suspended Indian Police Service officer GP Singh's family and one family friend co-accused in the disproportionate assets case charged against Singh, The Indian Express reported.

The Raipur police submitted a 12,000-page charge sheet before the sessions court on Tuesday against 1994 batch IPS officer Singh. He was arrested from Gurugram in January this year after both High Court and Supreme Court rejected his bail petition.

The former additional director general of ACB, Singh, was named in many cases including sedition. ACB raided his house in July 2021, while Singh got accused of having disproportionate assets beyond his earnings and extortion. The sedition charge over him was added after police found a diary from his residence, which according to them, contained fictionalized accounts of government functionaries and officials intended to create unrest.

Meanwhile, Singh's lawyer Ashutosh Pandey said he was notified about the charge sheet on Tuesday evening. "The court, however, informed me that a prior consent from the Ministry of Home Affairs was pending so the court couldn't take cognizance of the case," he said.

Pandey said that the Union Home Ministry's consent is needed before trial in all disproportionate assets cases. If it is not received, the charge sheet stands to be cancelled, he said. He received more than 10,000 pages of the charge sheet but has not studied its content.