Summary:
He alleged that he was “kidnapped from his village Lingudta (almost 55 km from Almora) and his arrest was shown in Kasardevi (near Almora) with leopard skins. Advocate Diwan Singh was arrested by police as part of a conspiracy.”Singh has also filed an application in the CJM court, accusing the SOG and police of wrongful arrest. Almora: Days after an advocate was arrested by a joint team of Special Operations Group (SOG) and Almora Police on charges of smuggling leopard skins, the Almora Bar Association led a protest march on Tuesday alleging that the arrest of the lawyer was part of a “conspiracy”.Mahesh Parihar, chairperson of Almora Bar Association, told TOI, “We have written to the court of the chief judicial magistrate for an impartial inquiry. He requested the court to file an FIR against the culprits for his wrongful arrest”.Singh alleged, “Police told me that I would be released if I accepted that I knew underground Maoist leader Khim Singh and said that I was aware that the leader of the Uttarakhand Parivartan Party P C Tiwari had Maoist links. They asked me to say that I pasted Maoist posters in Dholchina on Tiwari’s instructions.”Tiwari, president, Uttarakhand Parivartan Party, told TOI that the party was fighting for issues related to water, forest and land of the people due to which they sometimes came in conflict with police and the administration.“It is dangerous for the democracy that I’m being targeted,” Tiwari said.When TOI contacted P Renuka Devi, SSP Almora declined to comment on the issue..