Date:01/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/01/stories/2008110154520500.htm

Other States - Bihar

IPS officer serves notice on Minister

Patna: An IPS officer has served a legal notice on a Bihar Minister allegedly for making ‘derogatory’ remarks against him at a public function and his ‘political victimisation’ thereafter, causing a major embarrassment to the Nitish Kumar government.

“We have served a legal notice on Urban Development and Housing Minister Bhola Singh under section 80 of the Code of Civil Procedure,” said Ritesh Kumar, advocate for the IPS officer Paresh Saxena, who is known for his honesty.

According to Section 80, sixty days notice has to be given before moving a defamation suit against a public servant. Mr. Saxena, till recently the SP of Gaya, had stirred a hornet’s nest when he sought permission to reopen the murder case of former Gaya RJD MP Rajesh Kumar, during the 2005 Assembly elections, to look into the alleged role of Assembly Speaker U.N. Choudhry.

Mr. Kumar, at that time, was contesting as an LJP nominee against Mr. Choudhry from naxalite-hit Imamganj seat. Mr. Saxena was shunted out and posted as AIG (inspection) Patna. The legal notice, a copy of which has been despatched to Chief Secretary R J M Pillai, alleged that “the officer was insulted and demoralised in front of the public and his subordinates by Mr. Singh who used offending, libellous and defamatory statements against Mr. Saxena at the last month’s Pitripaksha Mela (fair) at Gaya”. -- PTI