In July 2016, Dr Jitendra Gupta, an IAS officer who was posted as Sub Divisional Magistrate in Mohaniya, Bihar, was wrongly implicated in a case of bribery and had to spend a month in jail.
His humiliation and ordeal ended when the Supreme Court exonerated him of all charges last week and agreed with the Patna High Court that he was “framed”.
Gupta is an officer from the 2013 batch and in July 2016, given the growing mafia-police nexus, he decided to take it head-on.
The “Entry Mafia” lodged a vigilance complaint against the young officer, alleging he seized 4 trucks on 3 July 2016 and later demanded a bribe for releasing them.
He spoke with The Quint and talked about what happened after he was accused of corruption.
He said that without any evidence, he was arrested in the middle of the night and jailed for a month. After being released on bail, Gupta proved the FIR against him was fabricated, and it was quashed by the Patna High Court on 28 October 2016.
Demand of a bribe, acceptance, and recovery of the bribe by enforcement agencies, which are the three essentials of a corruption case, were missing in Gupta’s case. And the SC also ruled that Gupta was falsely implicated.
Gupta’s clean record got him the backing of the Bihar IAS Officers Association, who wanted his name to be cleared of the charges.
The Association’s Treasurer Dipak Singh spoke to The Quint.
Gupta said that his legal expenses were borne by the Association and said the memorandum also mentioned, “the Mafia is growing so powerful in the state that it has started challenging the State’s might”.
The case has embarrassed the Nitish Kumar government, which suspended the officer over dubious charges.
The Patna HC quashed the FIR after it pointed out glitches in the investigation.
Since getting appointed to service, Gupta did a lot of work in Mohania, for the city’s betterment.
While speaking to The Quint, Singh also said that after the HC judgement, the suspension against Gupta was dropped and he received a different posting. Now, he is posted as the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Ministry of Forest and Environment.
Gupta has maintained an exemplary record of service after he became a civil servant.
Apart from these, he also undertook the successful completion of pending development work such as Vehicular Under Pass (VUP) on NH2 and organising a grand Republic Day celebration in Mohania in 2016.
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