Dr.Thomas (Special Correspondent)
The arrest of an Head Constable of Jigani police station along with a two people including a peddler by Odisha police red handed and the Bengaluru district police are now approaching Odisha High Court seeking quashing of the FIR filed against their staff.
The Sarangada police on Friday arrested Ananda K, Head constable attached to Jigani police along with two others and recovered 17.5 kilos of Marijuana worth Rs.1 lakh from them.
The trio including Anand and Sham Kumar,a peddler along with his associates Jayanth Kumar and Naresh Kumar were waiting for the bus to Berhampura to board when the police team raided them.
The accused reportedly tried to escape but were arrested after a hot chase.
Anand claimed that he had come for an investigation and was on a pursuit of an peddler related to a case registered in Jigani police station.
However police expressed doubts stating that no other policemen were with him at the time of arrest nor he had informed the local police station about his operation.
Moreover he has no documentary evidence to prove his claim and being Head Constable he has no power to investigate NDPS case.
The police said that Anand had accompanied Sham at the time of arrest and seizure of Ganja,who is a peddler having many cases pending against him.
However Senior police officials refuted the claims made by Odisha counterparts,stating that Anand was part of the eight members team led by ASI who went to arrest the accused involved in NDPS case in Jigani station.
Explaining the operation part,a senior police officer, said, “While the ASI and his team were waiting at a designated place,Anand accompanied by three others including Sham,a peddler went ahead in search of the accused location and recovered the drugs”.
They were returning to the police station along with the seizure when they were arrested by the police,he said.
Superintendent of Police,Mallikarjuna Baladandi, admitted that it was procedural lapse which led to the confusion and misunderstanding.
The police team as per CrPc procedure should have informed the local police station but could not due to some reason led to the arrest.
The police team had accompanied the peddler since he was aware of the accused location and was taken along to help the police team.
A team of police officials led by Additional Superintendent of Police reached Odisha to clarify the misunderstanding .
The police will approach the Orissa High Court in Cuttack seeking quashing of FIR filed against Anand.
The arrest of Anand has however brought embarrassment to the police department as earlier many police officials faced similar arrest.
Recently,a police team attached to Whitefield Division including a police inspector Shivaprakash with three junior officers were arrested by Kalamassery police in Kerala for accepting a bribe from the accused in a cyber crime case in July this year.
