This story is from February 4, 2019

Cops recall how CBI sought Army’s help to arrest Lalu Prasad

Cops recall how CBI sought Army’s help to arrest Lalu Prasad
PATNA: The face-off between Centre and the state government in West Bengal on Sunday reminded some senior police officers of a 1997 incident when the CBI officers had sought the help of Army to arrest the then Bihar CM and RJD chief Lalu Prasad in the multi-crore fodder scam and maintain law & order in Patna.
The unprecedented confrontation between the Narendra Modi government and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee was triggered after Kolkata police arrested eight CBI officials, who had gone to police commissioner Rajeev Kumar’s official bungalow to question him in the chit fund scam.
Later, Mamata herself staged a dharna against the Centre’s move.
“Former PM I K Gujaral, in his autobiography ‘Matters of Discretion’, has mentioned how the then CBI joint director U N Biswas had written to the then chief of Danapur cantonment for Army’s help to arrest Lalu,” former IPS officer Amitabh Das told TOI on Monday.
Later, he said, former DG (RPF) A P Durai was asked by the Union ministry of home affairs to inquire why Biswas had sought Army’s help. Durai later submitted before a special court in Ranchi that no court had told the CBI to take Army’s help to arrest Lalu.
V S Dubey, who was secretary in the finance department in 1997, said, “Although it is not documented, but we were told the CBI had apprehended that it might not get the required support from the state police in arresting Lalu. But Lalu surrendered on his own on July 30, 1997,” Dubey recalled and said, “I remember Lalu had called me and many of my colleagues to tell that he was going to jail and we should look after the state now.”

There has also been a couple of occasions when the Bihar chapter of IAS Association openly protested against the state government actions.
In 2014, the IAS Association had written to the Department of Personnel and Training and Central IAS Association against the suspension of 2005-batch officer Kuldip Narayan, the then Patna municipal commissioner.
Again in 2016, the IAS Association had protested against the arrest of Jitendra Gupta, a 2013-batch Bihar cadre officer, by the anti-corruption wing of state police. Gupta, posted as sub-divisional officer of Mohania in Kaimur district, was arrested on July 14, 2016 after a truck driver complained to the state vigilance bureau that the officer had demanded money for releasing a seized vehicle. The bureau raided Gupta’s residence and seized Rs 80,000 from his driver, who claimed that he had collected the money on Gupta’s behalf.
The IAS Association, in a memorandum to CM Nitish Kumar, claimed that it was Gupta’s driver who had taken a bribe for releasing four seized trucks and there was no evidence of the officer’s direct involvement in the incident.
Again, in March 2017, several IAS officers took an unprecedented move and formed a human chain in front of the Raj Bhavan to protest the arrest of the then Bihar Staff Selection Commission’s chairman in a scam. The state government had threatened to take action against the IAS officers and initiated an inquiry into the matter.
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