Saryu Roy in MP-MLA Court, calls FIR under Official Secrets Act a political conspiracy

Mail News Service

Jamshedpur/Ranchi, July 16: Jamshedpur West MLA Saryu Roy appeared before the MP-MLA Court in Ranchi on Wednesday in connection with an FIR lodged against him at Doranda police station under the Official Secrets Act. The FIR was filed by the Health Department on the instructions of then Health Minister Banna Gupta in 2022.

Roy termed the case a result of political conspiracy, claiming that investigators filed a charge sheet under political pressure, bypassing legal provisions. He asserted that the documents he had submitted to the Chief Minister—exposing a major scam in the Health Department—were public records and did not qualify as classified documents.

According to Saryu Roy, the charge sheet also included Section 120(B) of the IPC (criminal conspiracy), but no evidence or mention of other accused persons was found in the police diary or investigation report. He questioned how a conspiracy charge could stand when there was no second accused.

He further criticized the Deputy Superintendent of Police of Hatia for submitting the charge sheet without evidence and pointed out that neither the Superintendent of Police (City) nor the Senior Superintendent of Police provided any supervisory report on the case.

Roy revealed that he had written to the Director General of Police on May 18, 2024, requesting an inquiry. The DGP had directed the DIG of Ranchi to investigate, but the police supervision report contained no mention of that investigation.

The Jamshedpur West MLA claimed that this was not the first time he had faced legal retaliation after exposing corruption. He reaffirmed his commitment to presenting the full truth in court and pursuing the matter to its logical conclusion.

Notably, the FIR against Roy was filed after he had exposed the alleged Covid incentive scam in which former Health Minister Banna Gupta and 59 members of his ministerial cell were allegedly trying to claim Covid incentives meant for health workers. Roy had written to the Chief Minister on April 13, 2022, regarding the matter.