Uttar Pradesh: Special Investigation Team files FIR against IPS officer

After initiating a vigilance probe, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to probe charges of corruption against IPS officers, has registered an FIR against IPS officer Ajay Pal Sharma.

Director General of SIT, R. P. Singh, said that on the directions of the government, an FIR under the charges of criminal breach of trust, criminal conspiracy and causing disappearance of evidence has been registered against Sharma.

"We have formed a team and would be probing into all the allegations against the IPS officer," he said.

He added that the FIR registered by a woman at the Hazratganj police station in Lucknow has also been taken into account.

It may be recalled that on March 8, a woman claiming to be Sharma's 'wife', had lodged an FIR with Hazratganj police station alleging that the officer had multiple affairs and in order to conceal it, he had framed her in a fraud case and got her arrested on August 10, 2019.

However, IPS Sharma had told reporters that the charges were baseless and that the woman was not his wife.

Earlier, on January 9, 2020, a three-member SIT comprising IG STF Amitabh Yash, and Jal Nigam Managing Director Vikas Gothalwal was formed on the directions of the Chief Minister to probe the allegations of graft levelled by IPS officer Vaibhav Krishna against five fellow IPS officers, Ajay Pal Sharma, Sudhir Kumar Singh, Ganesh Saha, Rajiv Narain Mishra and Himanshu Kumar.

Krishna had filed a complaint in August against the five officers to the department of home and also marked a copy to the Director General of Police (DGP).

While this probe was on, explicit videos and chats of Krishna went viral on January 1 and Krishna described videos as "morphed" and part of "organised attempt" to malign him.

Krishna had alleged that five IPS officers he had named were behind leak.

He also linked the leaks to the "confidential" report he had sent to the government. He also filed a FIR against unknown persons for morphing and sharing videos. The videos were sent for forensic examination in Gujarat and no tampering was found.

Then the SIT was formed and probe started.

The SIT had recommended government action against two IPS officers -- Ajay Pal Sharma and Himanshu Kumar -- along with vigilance probe. The other three were accused of misconduct.