Cuttack: Former senior superintendent of Choudwar circle jail, Sujit Kumar Raula, will remain in custody with a vigilance court here on Wednesday rejecting his bail plea in a case relating to alleged manipulation of prison records following escape of two undertrials accused of murder.Additional sessions judge-cum-special judge (vigilance) Cuttack Rajkishore Mohapatra rejected Raula’s bail application, observing that the investigation was still at an early stage and several aspects of the alleged offence were yet to be unearthed.Raula was arrested on Sept 20 on allegations of tampering with the jail’s official gate-in-out register and forging the signature of former jailor Santoshini Dash in the superintendent’s minutes book. His previous bail plea had been rejected by a lower court on Sept 21.Allegations arose from a complaint filed by Dash. The state govt placed Raula under suspension on Sept 25.The vigilance court noted that Raula was a “highly placed govt officer” while the informant was a subordinate officer. The court expressed apprehension that his release could affect the investigation and prosecution witnesses.“There is every possibility the accused would not co-operate the investigation, destroy crucial evidence and either induce or extend threat to prosecution witnesses, in particular to the informant,” said the court.“Many more things are yet to be unearthed,” the court observed, adding that the alleged offences were serious. Considering nature of the allegations, stage of investigation and materials on record, the court declined to release Raula on bail.Dash, in her FIR, had accused Raula of remaining absent from duty without authorisation and returning only after two undertrials accused of murder escaped from jail. She alleged that entries in the gate-in-out register for Oct 1, 2 and 3 were subsequently manipulated to show that Raula had remained inside the jail during duty hours.She also alleged that her signature was forged in the jail minutes book on Oct 2 in a bid to shift responsibility for the security lapse on to her.“This act was done with an ulterior motive to fabricate evidence, mislead authorities and falsely implicate or trap me while shielding himself from the responsibility,” the FIR stated.
