‘Interfere’ rap on DM

Vivek Chhetri, TT,Darjeeling, August 29: The chief judicial magistrate of Darjeeling today told the district magistrate he must hand over all relevant documents of the minority welfare society Anjuman-E-Islamia to the officer probing a funds misuse case against the body.

Rajesh Sinha, one of the defence lawyers in the case, said: “Today, the chief judicial magistrate passed an order directing the district magistrate not to interfere in the investigation of the case or else the court will take it (the matter) seriously. The court has also directed the DM to hand over all the seized documents to the investigation officer.”

Chief judicial magistrate Biplab Roy had on Wednesday raised questions about why district magistrate Puneet Yadav, currently the administrator of the welfare society, had ordered a financial audit when a probe on alleged misappropriation of funds was being investigated by the police and a case is on that is pending in a criminal court.

The magistrate had directed Yadav to file an affidavit today, explaining “whether his action shall not be treated as interference in the jurisdiction of the court”.

Magistrate Roy had said on Wednesday that the district magistrate’s move to hold “a parallel investigation” could be “interfering with the jurisdiction of the criminal court which under no circumstance can be approved or appreciated”.

Pankaj Prasad, the assistant public prosecutor, said: “The district magistrate today replied that filing of an FIR and beginning of a police investigation do not in any way prohibit the DM, duly empowered, to take necessary actions and measures done to identify the loss made by the erstwhile executive committee (of Anjuman-E-Islamia).”

Prasad added: “The district magistrate has also replied that it was not appropriate to expect a SI (sub-inspector) to conduct a financial audit.”

Magistrate Roy, after going through the affidavit, said in his order that Yadav “has challenged the competency of police authority in the matter of investigating the case”.

The magistrate also said that a copy of the order should be sent to the Union home secretary, the state chief secretary, director-general of police, inspector-general (law and order), inspector-general (North Bengal) and superintendent of police, Darjeeling, “for information and necessary action if any”.

The order pointed out that the committee formed by the district magistrate to administer the welfare society had in it a member who has been mentioned in a media report to have alleged links with a mafioso.

“How can such a person have a close proximity with the DM?” the magistrate said in the order.

That one of the members of the committee formed by the DM had criminal cases pending against him and allegedly had links with a mafioso was brought to the notice of the magistrate by the lawyer of Zahid Khan, a Darjeeling civic councillor arrested in the Anjuman funds misappropriation case.

Zahid was granted interim bail on a surety of Rs 5,000 under the condition that he would report to the police every week and inform the investigating officer before leaving the area under the jurisdiction of the chief judicial magistrate’s court.

Zahid was arrested in Darjeeling on July 31 after the Wakf board filed an FIR on July 18, alleging that eight members of the Anjuman-E-Islamia had been involved in acts of alleged misappropriation of funds.

The court today also observed that the Wakf board had suppressed in its FIR the fact that two civil suits were pending in court contesting its claim that Anjuman-E-Islamia was under the Wakf board.

The committee of which Zahid was a member of the welfare society had resigned in June, a month before the FIR was filed. The committee had told the district magistrate that it wanted to resign as it could not hold elections to the society for several years.

The constitution of Anjuman-E-Islamia empowers the district magistrate as administrator in the absence of a committee to run the society involved in welfare work for the minority community.

After Yadav took charge as administrator in June, he formed the 20-member supervisory committee and ordered the financial audit.