BIDYUT BURAGOHAIN Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is aggrieved by the orders dated 16.4.2008 and 28.8.2008 passed respectively by the Disciplinary Authority and the Appellate Authority. By the first order, the petitioner has been awarded with the major penalty of compulsory retirement from service and by the second order, the departmental appeal preferred by the petitioner has been rejected.

(2.) The petitioner was a member of the Assam Police Service (APS 1993 batch). While he was serving at Lakhimpur as Additional Superintendent of Police, he was placed under suspension by order dated 10.7.2001 in contemplation of a departmental proceeding. He was so placed under suspension when one Shri Gajen Bhuyan, a militant of United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) was found staying in his residential campus and was picked up by the Army with arms and ammunitions. An FIR was lodged with the statement that the said militant alongwith two others had given number of extortion calls/notices to some persons of the area called Boginadi.

(3.) The aforesaid order of suspension dated 10.7.2001 was followed by the order dated 9.8.2001 by which an enquiry committee was constituted headed by the Commissioner, North Assam Division, Tezpur. The enquiry committee carried out the preliminary enquiry regarding the nature of involvement of the petitioner in the entire episode. In the mean time, the petitioner was served with the show-cause notice dated 8.10.2001 to which the petitioner submitted reply dated 24.10.2001 denying the allegations made in the show-cause notice. Although in the writ petition, the petitioner has not annexed the copy of the charge-sheet but the said charges are reflected in the impugned order dated 16.4.2008. The charges levelled against the petitioner are as follows: