If you drove past the ED Zonal office near Airport Road in Ranchi today, you definitely noticed the chaos. It’s not every day you see local police teams marching into the office of a central agency like the Enforcement Directorate. But that’s exactly what happened this Thursday, and the reason is fueling a massive controversy in Jharkhand.The Accusation: "I Was Tortured"The spark that lit this fire is an FIR filed by Santosh Kumar. Currently under the scanner for a multi-crore drinking water scam, Santosh has turned the tables on his interrogators.He filed a complaint at the SC/ST Police Station (and Airport Thana), claiming that his questioning session turned into a nightmare. According to Santosh, he was summoned to the ED office, where he alleges that Assistant Director Prateek and another official named Shubham assaulted him. He claims he was abused and beaten in a room with the lights turned off.Police Make a MoveThe Ranchi Police didn’t sit on this complaint. A team led by the Hatia DSP and officers from the Airport Police Station drove straight to the ED office.Their goal was simple: Get the CCTV footage.The police argue that if an assault happened, the cameras inside the building would have caught something—either the act itself or Santosh leaving the room injured. They spent a considerable amount of time inside the facility, scanning the hard drives and reviewing the timeline of when Santosh entered and left.The Other Side of the StoryThis isn't an open-and-shut case. ED sources are reportedly saying this is a tactic to derail the investigation. There are whispers that the accused might have inflicted the injury on himself to create grounds for a legal case against the investigating officers.Why the Tension?This investigation adds another heavy layer to the ongoing friction between the Jharkhand state machinery and central agencies. With the police now actively investigating federal officers inside their own headquarters, the political temperature in Ranchi has shot up.Everyone is now waiting for one thing: What is on those tapes? The footage will decide who is lying—the accused or the agency.
Around the web
