CM appears in Jamshedpur court, claims innocent in violation of code of conduct

Jamshedpur, April 10: Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Monday appeared in Jamshedpur civil court in two separate cases related to obstructing a government servant from discharging his duty and violation of code of conduct in the 2009 Parliamentary elections.

The Chief Minister arrived at the civil court at Humepipe area in Sitaramdera at around 10.20 am and walked to the court of sub-divisional judicial magistrate (SDJM) Ashok Kumar for recording his statement in connection with a case of April 24, 2007.

Das (then Jamshedpur East MLA) along with 21 others had been accused of forcibly getting five BJP activists released from Kadma police station.

The CM along with 21 others accused in the case recorded their statement before the SDJM Ashok Kumar under section 313 of CrPC in connection with a case in Kadma police station where they were accused of forcibly releasing five BJP activists Rajkumar Rai, Sudhanshu Ojha, Rajesh Singh, Bhubaneshwar Singh and Umesh Singh from Kadma police station.

The next date for the arguments in the case has been fixed by the court on April 25 this year. The Chief Minister claimed in his statement that he was innocent and had been implicated in the case.

Incidentally, Sudhanshu Ojha and others had been arrested by the police in connection with a land dispute in Shastrinagar and Raghubar Das apart from being Jamshedpur East MLA was the then state urban development minister.

After this, the Chief Minister went to the court of the chief judicial magistrate, G. K Tiwary and recorded his statement in connection under section 313 of CrPC for violation of code of conduct case lodged in Bistupur police station by the district administration.

BJP legal counsel Devender Singh informed that the Chief Minister recorded his statement along with five others in the case lodged in Bistupur police station on March 3, 2009 where he had been made named accused for putting up party banners and flags near Bistupur roundabout for the visit of party senior leader L. K Advani during the 2009 Parliamentary polls in the state.