MP's Happiness Minister absconds

A minister absconds in MP, as a court issues a warrant for his arrest in connection with a murder case

NK SINGH

MP’s Minister of State for Happiness Lal Singh Arya is not a happy man. He is a fugitive, on the run from the law. A court in Bhind, his home district, issued a non-bailable warrant for his arrest last week. The judge has asked the police to arrest him and present him in the court where he is wanted in connection with a murder trial. The police are trying its best not to arrest him. The prevailing wisdom in BJP, the ruling party that he represents in the state assembly, is that Arya is innocent and he should avoid his arrest, as long as he can. For, an arrest means his imminent ouster from the ministry. So, Arya has gone underground, or at least that is what the police would like us to believe. All this running around, naturally, does not make Arya a very happy person.

Last heard, the Happiness Minister was seen visiting the CM secretariat in Bhopal after the special CBI court in Bhind issued warrants for his arrest. Curiously, the State’s Director General of Police, RK Shukla, and CM’s Officer on Special Duty Adarsh Katiyar were spotted in the CM secretariat at the same time. Katiyar, an IPS officer of Additional Director General rank, is supposed to deal with knotty police issues reaching the chief minister. Arya clarified that he had gone to CM’s office to meet him. However, the meeting could not take place as the chief minister was not in Bhopal that day. Interestingly, the fugitive still chose to spend nearly an hour in CM’s office. By a strange coincidence, Shukla and Katiyar were also seen there around the same time.

Section 212 of Indian Penal Code deals with harbouring offender. It prescribes punishments for “whoever harbours or conceals a person whom he knows or has reason to believe to be the offender, with the intention of screening him from legal punishment.” Only people exempted under this section are the spouses of offenders.

The eight-year-old case in which Arya has been named a co-accused under section 319 of IPC (causing hurt) is equally interesting. The sitting Congress MLA from Gohad, Makhanlal Jatav was shot dead from close range on April 13, 2009, soon after he finished addressing an election meeting at a village in Bhind district. He had gone there to campaign for his party’s candidate for Bhind Lok Sabha seat, Bhagirath Prasad. The BJP Government in MP lodged murder case against eight persons, one of who is dead now. However, the slain MLA’s son, Ranveer Jatav, and another key witness told the court during the trial of the case later that the murder took place at the behest of Lal Singh Arya, a long time political rival of Jatav. Since then Arya had been elected as a BJP MLA from Gohad.

The man whose electioneering caused all the trouble in 2009, Bhagirath Prasad, a former IAS officer of MP cadre, has since then, interestingly, switched his political loyalty from Congress to BJP. He is currently the BJP Member of Parliament from Bhind. Seeing the high profile nature of the murder case, the government had ordered an investigation by the CBI. Prasad had told the CBI investigators then that Arya “could be a rival” to slain MLA Jatav.

Based on statements of the key witnesses, the special court in Bhind included Arya’s name as an accused on August 24 this year. The minister tried to get relief from MP High Court as well as from Supreme Court against the order of the lower court. But the highest court in the land refused to intervene. His subsequent plea for anticipatory bail in the case has been dismissed by MP High Court. It said: “Evidence in the considered opinion of this court is good enough to fall within the category of more than strong suspicion.” Thereupon, Arya filed a revision petition in the high court on August 7, two days after the arrest warrant, but failed to get any relief once again.

Arya has been avoiding appearance in the special court at Bhind, where the murder trial continues. Initially, police said it could not find the minister. Subsequently, when the judge got tough, it said, “the minister refuses to accept the bailable warrant.” The court issued a non-bailable warrant on December 5 when Arya refused to appear in court on six successive dates between August 24 and November 10. A witness has alleged in the court that he had been offered Rs 50 lakh for turning hostile in the case. He also complained that Arya’s “men” had been threatening him with dire consequences if he deposed in the case.

BJP is convinced of Arya’s innocence. It’s State President Nandkumar Singh Chauhan argues, “accepting warrant amounts to courting arrest”. BJP feels that the minister is within his right to abscond to avoid arrest. And the minister continues to be at large! Bizarre but true!!

Powers That Be, my column in DB Post of December 11, 2017

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