In another major legal reprieve, Supreme Court has stayed Madanwada Korkoti Special Judicial Inquiry Commission’s findings and recommendation of action against the then Durg Range Inspector General of Police and 1988-batch IPS officer Mukesh Gupta.

“A three judges’ bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, justice S Ravindra Bhat and justice J B Pardiwala granted the relief while hearing the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by IPS officer Gupta. The court, upon hearing the counsel, also ordered a notice be served to the State Government and Commission’s Judge asking them to get their replies filed by Oct 31, 2022. The petition was filed by the officer through Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, Advocate Vivek Sharma and Ravi Sharma,” knowledgeable sources in the legal fraternity told ‘The Hitavada’.

Earlier, according to the sources, IPS Mukesh Gupta had also filed a petition in the High Court challenging the commission’s findings and seeking relief, through his advocate Gary Mukhodpadhyay and senior advocate of the Supreme Court Mahesh Jethmalani argued on his behalf. Gupta’s counsel argued that the Commission of Inquiry has given an ex parte decision, which is against the Constitution. The decision has been given without giving the petitioner an opportunity of being heard and without knowing his side, which is not fair. In the petition, he had sought a stay on the commission’s inquiry report as an interim relief. However, the High Court refused to grant him any interim relief.

Subsequently, IPS Gupta moved to the Supreme Court where he filed the SLP. Upon its hearing, the court in its order stayed the paragraph 8B of the SLP, which reads – “Restrain the Respondent No. 1 (State of Chhattisgarh) from circulating the said report of the Madanwada Korkotti Special Judicial Enquiry Commission and further restrain the Respondent No. 1 from acting on the basis of the findings contained in the said report qua the petitioner”.

It is pertinent here to recall that the Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel led state government on January 15th, 2020, had appointed Shambhu Nath Shrivastav, a retired judge of Allahabad High Court, as sole enquiry commissioner, for probing the infamous Madanwada Maoist ambush, which resulted in the killing of 29 policemen including the then Superintendent of Police Vinod Kumar Choubey, in a three-stage ambush. The massacre that took place on July 12, 2009, was one of the biggest and dreaded Maoist attacks in the insurgency-hit history of Chhattisgarh. Kirti Chakra was awarded to martyr SP Rajnandgaon, Vinod Kumar Choubey while four Police officers were also conferred upon the President’s Police Medal for Gallantry which included one officer of CRPF. IG Durg Range Mukesh Gupta was also awarded the President’s Police Medal for Gallantry. Shrivastava, a former Lokayukt in the BJP-led government of former chief Dr. Raman Singh, was asked to submit the probe report within six months. However, the commission submitted a comprehensive 109-page report on 1st February, 2022, which was tabled by the Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on the floor of the assembly on March 16, 2022, along with his government’s Action Taken Report (ATR). The report had strongly criticised IPS officer Mukesh Gupta and termed the incident as fallout of his command failure. The report further indicting IPS Gupta, even went on to comment, “Had IG acted with courage the results would have been different. Whatever he did, it was nothing else but an act of cowardice from him because he had enough time to call CRPF, Chhattisgarh Armed Force (CAF) and use them. There were ‘repeated instances of carelessness and negligence’ by Gupta.”