IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal (file photo)
Even as the Akhilesh Yadav government continues to stick to its stand that IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal was suspended for endangering communal harmony, NDTV has learnt that the 28-year-old was instrumental in getting a First Information Report or FIR filed against a man named Omendra Khari, who is reportedly a close aide of Samajwadi Party leader Narendra Bhati.
(See documents)Mr Bhati is the same man who had declared in a speech that he got Ms Nagpal removed in 41 minutes, a day after her controversial suspension.
According to the FIR accessed by NDTV, Ms Nagpal, the Sub Divisional Magistrate of Gautam Buddh Nagar, was the officer in-charge at an auction where sand confiscated from illegal mining was being sold during the first week of July. Mr Khari won the auction at Rs. 8 crore. But when he did not deposit the mandatory Rs. 2 crore, the one-fourth amount of the winning bid, by evening, Ms Nagpal reportedly told the mining department to file an FIR.
Mr Bhati had then allegedly attempted to intervene to stop the FIR being filed against Mr Khari, who sources say has links to the sand mining mafia.
However, an FIR was filed at the behest of Ms Nagpal on July 11, accusing Mr Khari of cheating. The police even went to his village Chitti to question him, but he had gone missing by then. After being on the run for almost two weeks, Mr Khari got a stay on his arrest from the Allahabad High court on July 25.
Ms Nagpal was suspended three days later by the Uttar Pradesh government for allegedly ordering the removal of a wall of a new mosque being built at a village in Noida and thereby endangering communal harmony. Her supporters say she has been suspended for taking on the powerful sand mining mafia in the area.
Ms Nagpal's removal has triggered a national discourse on the need to protect honest officers from political persecution. A plea was filed in the Supreme Court today, demanding the revocation of Ms Nagpal's suspension.