BAREILLY: On the instructions of Sambhal district magistrate (DM) Anand Kumar Singh, police have registered an FIR against five people including Chandausi sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Pratipal Singh under the Prevention of Corruption Act and sections of the IPC. The SDM is alleged to have taken a bribe from Sopali Singh, whose wife Ramvati contested for the post of village pradhan in 2015, during his stint in Gunnaur subdivision.Ramvati had lost the election and challenged the results in SDM court. Sopali alleged that despite taking Rs 3.5 lakh from him, the SDM didn’t give a verdict in Ramvati’s favour, following which Sopali asked Pratipal to return the money. On May 23, Sopali lodged a complaint with the DM.The FIR mentions five accused, including Pratipal, his then peshkar (court reader), a journalist Mohd Saddam and two unidentified persons.Station house officer of Chandausi police station, Amit Kumar, confirmed that on the DM’s instruction an FIR under sections 147 (rioting), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC as well as sections 7 and 13 of Prevention of Corruption Act have been lodged against the five on Monday night. Kumar said that Chandausi circle officer Omkar Yadav had been tasked to investigate the matter.Sopali said, “I gave Rs 1 lakh in cash to Pratipal, while the remaining Rs 2.5 lakh was transferred to his wife Ragini Chauhan’s bank account from the accounts of my son Dharmveer and me. Even after taking the money, Pratipal didn’t dispose of the case fairly. After one-and-half years, when I approached the DM since Pratipal had refused to return my money, I got a phone call and the person introduced himself as Saddam, a reporter associated with a news channel.”Sopali said that the accused reporter asked him to meet at the latter’s place on June 9 to settle the matter.“When I reached there, Pratipal, his peshkar and two persons were already present. Threatening to kill me, they forced me to sign on some already prepared papers and also clicked the photographs. After that they threw me out and threatened me again with dire consequences if I approached the DM,” Sopali added.

Stay updated with all the Bareilly Lates News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.