CBI recommends prosecution of scribe and action against police

BHOPAL, MARCH 6: The CBI has recommended the prosecution of journalist-activist Santosh Bharti and his associates for alleged trespass int...

BHOPAL, MARCH 6: The CBI has recommended the prosecution of journalist-activist Santosh Bharti and his associates for alleged trespass into the divisional forest office at Damoh, criminal intimidation, beating up of forest officials and damage to office property on the night of August 15 last year.

The prosecution has been recommended under various sections of Indian Penal Code. The associates of Bharti include Anurag Bharti, Anurag Hazari, O P Jain, Virender Agrawal, K K Tiwari, Bharat Choube, Lokesh Ganger and Mukesh Singh.

Prosecution of five police officials has also been recommended for alleged beating up of Santosh Bharti and others, causing fracture in Bharti’s ribs and fudging the police records regarding arrest, according to an official release.

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The CBI, which has submitted a report to the Supreme Court, has also recommended departmental action against seven police officials for not making proper entries in this case.

The CBI has decided to send a self-contained note to the Madhya Pradesh government in respect of then DFO incharge, Damoh, A K Bhatt and sub-divisional magistrate C B Tirkey for not following the instructions of the collector to visit the DFO office at the time of the incident. The Supreme Court on August 16 last year, on the complaint of Om Prakash Jain, had directed the CBI to seal the office of DFO Damoh and to inquire into the incident and submit a report.

The CBI immediately sealed the DFO’s office, submitted a preliminary enquiry report on August 27 last year and reported that there was no material to show that any documents were being destroyed on the night of August 15-16 last year.

The Supreme Court on September six last directed CBI to investigate the incident of forest office Damoh and also ordered suspension of eight police officials mentioned in the complaint.

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CBI inquiry revealed that Santosh Bharati and six associates were taken into custody by the police from the office of DFO at Damoh for trespassing and damaging government property and intimidating and beating forest officials.Two government files were also recovered from them when the police reached the forest office.

The CBI has said in its report to the Supreme Court that investigations had revealed that all the files relating to the cases in the Supreme Court were found in tact and none of the files related to the inquiry was missing.