Inspector at the Area Police Office Mirchaiya Govinda Jha revealed that Superintendent of Police (SP) KC changed the case of five persons arrested on July 26 with drugs and an unregistered vehicle into public offense after Jha forwarded the case to Siraha district police for further action. [break]
Rajesh Basnet from Bhadrakali, Kathmandu, and Sundar Shrestha, Jeevan Shrestha, Pravin Niraula and Chakra Majhi from Katari-4, Udayapur were arrested from Fulbariya-8, Siraha with 15 bottles of Corex cough syrup -- a codeine based drug that is commonly used by drug addicts -- and a Mahindra Bolero jeep with Indian number plate.
“We had asked the district [police office] to register drug smuggling case against the five. But KC initiated a public offense case against them against our recommendation,” inspector Jha claims insisting that a case should be forwarded according to the recommendation of the arresting police office.
The five arrested and the unregistered vehicle should have been kept at Mirchaiya Police Office for up to 90 days for investigation but they have been kept at Siraha District Police Office to protect the five persons, claims Jha.
“When the police chief himself does this kind of things to protect the criminals, how can officers like us can work with a high morale?” Jha says.
SP KC maintains that the arrested persons were just drug abusers and hence it was forwarded as a public offense case. He also claimed that Mirchaiya Police had in its report mentioned that the arrested five were drug abusers.
The law provides a jail term of up to 33 years depending upon the nature of drug peddling involved while the maximum penalty for persons convicted under public offense is two years.
Jha claims that the case was changed to protect a relative of the chief district officer of Siraha, Gehanath Bhandari, who is among those arrested. “There is immense pressure from my chief (KC) and many politicians not to initiate action against them. But I will go to any lengths to get them punished,” Jha says.
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