Uttarakhand High Court seeks CID progress report in Nainital Panchayat abduction case

Nainital, Oct 15 (PTI) The Uttarakhand High Court has expressed displeasure over the failure of the CID to submit a progress report in the alleged abduction case of five members during the Nainital District Panchayat president and vice president elections on August 14.

A division bench of Justice G. Narendra and Justice Subhash Upadhyay noted that despite previous instructions, no action has been taken against the absconding accused.

The court directed the state government to file a detailed progress report before the next hearing on October 17.

During the hearing, government representatives and four investigating officers appeared and stated that four FIRs had been registered. However, the court was not satisfied and sought information on the current status of these cases.

The petitioners objected to the state government's request for more time and demanded that the investigation be handed over to a higher-level agency instead of the CID.

Following this, the court directed the government to submit a complete account of the action taken so far, noting that no report had been filed even two months after the elections.

The Congress had alleged that five of its district panchayat members were abducted to prevent them from voting during the election for the president and vice-president of the Nainital district panchayat. Later, on the orders of the High Court, these district panchayat members were sent to vote under security.

The chief minister had clarified that a detailed investigation of all the FIRs registered during these incidents would be conducted by the CBI-CID. PTI COR HIG HIG HIG