New Delhi, Jan 3 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay a probe into a corruption case and grant protection from arrest to Gurjinder Pal Singh, the suspended director of Chhattisgarh Police Academy.

"Dismissed," said the bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana after senior advocate U R Lalit, appearing for the suspended IPS officer, submitted that the accused has been a victim of "political vindictiveness" of the current government in the state.

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The bench, also comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice Hima Kohli, was hearing an appeal of Singh against the November 26 order of the Chhattisgarh High Court refusing to grant protection from arrest and stay the ongoing investigation being conducted by the Economic Offence Wing/Ant-Corruption Branch of the state police.

The state government was represented by senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi and lawyer Sumeer Sodhi.

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"Grant the protection against arrest and stay in the further proceedings in respect of impugned preliminary enquiry and FIR in connection to crime no... under Section 13 (1) (b) and 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, registered in police station EOW /ACB Raipur on June 29, 2021," the plea stated.

Singh, in his plea, claimed that he was "repeatedly forced as Economic Offence Wing/Ant-Corruption bureau chief to proceed against the previous chief minister and his wife" in one 'Nagrik Aapurti Nigam' scam, popularly known as NAN scam in Chhattisgarh.

"When he showed his disability to it since he was of the opinion that the material available was not sufficient enough to proceed against them, from that point of time vengeance and malicious political vendetta started against the petitioner in the form of multiple frivolous preliminary enquiries and FIRs for not obliging unduly to the current dispensation," the plea alleged.

The suspended IPS officer said earlier the apex court had granted him the protection.

Singh, the 1994-batch IPS officer who had served as the IG of Raipur, Durg, and Bilaspur during the BJP rule, has been facing the probe in three criminal cases.

He was suspended from the post of director of Chhattisgarh Police Academy and has been made an accused in three FIRs for offences of sedition, corruption, and extortion.

The apex court, On October 1 last year, while granting protection to Singh in two cases, had flagged the alleged nexus between politicians and the bureaucrats, especially police officers.

The bench had said that it would grant protection to the suspended officer from any coercive action in two cases lodged for the offence of sedition and extortion respectively and would request the Chhattisgarh High Court to decide his pleas expeditiously within eight weeks.

In the third case lodged under the Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly amassing disproportionate assets, the bench had said that the police officer would be at liberty to avail appropriate legal remedy as he had only sought its transfer to the CBI and the stay of the ongoing probe being conducted by the state police.

The high court refused relief in the third case lodged for alleged corruption.

One FIR was lodged on July 28, last year, for extortion, criminal intimidation under the IPC on the complaint of one Kamal Kumar Sen concerning an alleged incident of 2016.

Singh has also been booked in the disproportionate assets case following raids at his premises by the state's Anti-Corruption Bureau and Economic Offences Wing.

Another case of sedition was invoked against him on the grounds of his alleged involvement in promoting enmity and hatching a conspiracy against the government.

The director of the state police academy was suspended on July 5, last year, after the ACB/EOW, on June 29, 2021, registered an FIR under the Prevention of Corruption Act in connection with the disproportionate assets he had allegedly amassed.

The ACB/EOW, which carried a three-day search at around 15 locations linked to Singh from July 1 to 3, claimed to have discovered movable and immovable assets worth around Rs 10 crore.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)