SC order’s compliance: SIT formed by MP govt to probe disappearance of person in land dispute

BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh government has formed a three-membered SIT to probe into a missing person from Sagar district since 2016, in compliance with an order of the Supreme Court.

In the order on August 6, the Apex Court had asked the Director General of Police (DGP) of the state to form the SIT (Special Investigation Team) into the eight-year-old case involving the mysterious disappearance of Man Singh Patel. The court had ordered the direction while disposing off a writ petition (criminal) filed by OBC Mahasabha.

DGP of Madhya Pradesh Sudhir Saxena on Thursday constituted the SIT to probe the matter, appointing Inspector General of Police, Bhopal (rural) Abhay Singh as head of the team while Sehore Superintendent of Police Mayank Awasthi and Assistant IG of Police Anurag Sujaniya as members of the team.

The SIT will investigate the matter and submit the report within four months.

Patel has disappeared since 2016 amid a land dispute. His son, Sitaram, had accused MP minister Govind Singh Rajput and his associates of involvement in his father’s disappearance. Despite Sitaram’s attempts to file a complaint, the police only registered a report about the missing person and no effective action had been taken to locate Man Singh Patel.

The state police had formed an SIT in 2016, comprising constables and assistant sub-inspectors, which failed to make any progress, and the Supreme Court termed the probe as an eyewash in its order. In the petition, the OBC Mahasabha had made Minister Rajput and his aides a respondent, it was noted by the Apex Court in its order.

The petitioner had suspected the involvement of Minister Rajput and his associates in the alleged disappearance.

The court had directed a high-ranking police team to thoroughly investigate the allegations and report the whereabouts of the person within four months. The court pulled up the MP police’s handling of the case as only a missing report was initially registered, with an FIR filed in 2023. Sitaram had stated in his complaint that his father went missing after he filed a complaint against Minister Rajput and his aides regarding illegal encroachment and construction of a college on the ancestral land of the complainant.“Missing person registration number 9/2016 shall be immediately registered as an FIR, though initially against unknown persons only”, the court order stated.

The SIT is directed to videography the versions of responsible persons in the course of the investigation, the Court had ordered. The SC also directed the SIT to not take the version of Sitaram, as he keeps on changing his statements. Minister Rajput is a close associate of Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and came with him to BJP in March 2020.