HC relieves IAS officer of excesses’ charge during Cov

Agartala: The high court of Tripura relieved a senior IAS officer and the then district magistrate of West Tripura, Sailesh Kr Yadav, of the charge of improper behaviour and alleged excesses during two marriage ceremonies in April 2021 for violating Covid restrictions in the city.
Yadav is currently the commissioner of Agartala Municipal Corporation.
After a long hearing and scrutinising three separate reports of the inquiry committees against Yadav, a high court division bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice Arindam Lodh dismissed three writ petitions on Wednesday and issued a clean chit to him.
His promotion and central deputation have been held up for the last four years due to the pending case in the high court.
However, the court dismissed the petitions that claimed that Yadav had behaved improperly with the people present in the ceremony exceeding his powers, abusing the on-duty police officers, and physically assaulting the priest, groom, and his family accusing them of violating Covid curfew and the provisions of Disaster Management Act.
Since the allegations of excess were raised against the district magistrate, a probe committee was formed with two IAS officers, but the first report couldn’t satisfy the high court. The then retired judicial officer Shubash Shikdar was included in the committee but the second report had also failed to satisfy the high court.
The third inquiry was done by one retired district judge Bamdeb Majumder.
However, none of these reports could establish the allegation of DM’s excess in the marriage halls and illegal detention of women and children for violation of Covid curfew. Moreover, it was established that the wedding ceremony was solemnized in the early evening and Yadav had raided the hall late at night on April 26, 2021, said Yadav’s advocate Samrat Kar Bhowmik.