HC Directs Police Not to Initiate Coercive Action Against Senior IPS Sunil Naik
The court asked the petitioner that he must attend the inquiry before the investigation officer from 10am to 5pm every day.
Vijayawada:The Andhra Pradesh High Court has issued an interim order directing the police not to initiate any coercive action against the Bihar cadre IPS officer, M. Sunil Naik, in a case related to custodial torture of former MP and Deputy Speaker of Assembly Raghurama Krishna Raju in 2024.
A single-judge bench of Justice V.J. Pratapa held a hearing here on Monday in a petition filed by the IPS officer seeking anticipatory bail. The court directed the police to take up the inquiry within the framework of the law and instructed the petitioner to cooperate in the inquiry.
The court asked the petitioner that he must attend the inquiry before the investigation officer from 10am to 5pm every day. The case was posted for the next hearing on March 9.
Petitioner’s senior counsel, K. Parameswar, argued that when the case was booked by the police based on a complaint lodged by the then MP Krishna Raju, his client’s name was not included as an accused in the FIR. Subsequently, his name was added as the seventh accused.
He argued that his counsel was having no role in the arrest of Krishna Raju, his custody and torture.
However, senior counsels Siddartha Luthra and Siddartha Agarwal, on behalf of the police, argued that there was a big conspiracy in the case and there was a need to take the petitioner into custody to take the inquiry forward.
The court observed that nobody could escape from inquiry just because his or her name was not mentioned in the FIR. In the course of the investigation, it is natural that more names of the accused are enlisted, it said.