New Delhi, March 24 The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notice on a plea filed by suspended Additional Director General of Police Gurjinder Pal Singh against the Chhattisgarh High Court order, which refused to grant him interim bail in a case filed against him under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
A bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising Justice Krishna Murari orally observed, "These officers... when you're good with the government, when the government changes, you have to face the heat."
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Singh, submitted that when the government changes, things also change.
The bench said: "They forget what they did."
After a brief hearing in the matter, the bench issued notice and scheduled the matter for further hearing after four weeks. Sibal urged the court to list the matter after two weeks. The bench said nothing will happen in four weeks.
In the present plea, Singh contended that the state agency has not sought any extension for his police custody, rather sought for the judicial custody before the lower court.
In January, the Chhattisgarh Anti-Corruption Bureau arrested Singh, who is under suspension, and charged him with corruption, sedition, and promoting enmity.
On January 3, this year, the top court junked a plea by Singh, challenging the high court order, which denied him protection against arrest in a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The top court said: "Having heard learned senior counsel appearing for the petitioner and carefully perusing the material available on record, we see no reason to interfere with the impugned order passed by the High Court of Chhattisgarh at Bilaspur whereby the said court rejected the petitioner's application for protection against arrest and stay of further proceedings in First Information Report bearing Crime No.22/2021."
The top court, last year while hearing a petition filed by Singh in connection with an extortion case against him, said: "When a political party is in power, police officials' side with it... then, when a new party comes into power, the government initiates action against those officials. This is a new trend, which needs to be stopped".
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