IAS official seeks apology from ex-CM Jitan Ram Manjhi,

PATNA: The row over the arrest of 1987-batch IAS official Sudhir Kumar has taken a new turn with 1992-batch IAS official

Chanchal Kumar

sending a legal notice to former CM

Jitan Ram Manjhi

, seeking an apology for his statement that Chanchal was behind the arrest of Sudhir.

Either come out with an evidence to substantiate your statement or apologise within 15 days, failing which appropriate legal recourse will be taken against you, wrote the counsel of Chanchal Kumar, currently posted as principal secretary to CM Nitish Kumar.

The notice to the ex-CM has referred to his reported statement to the media in which he had said that Chanchal’s father-in-law had been jailed in 2003 and that Sudhir’s arrest now was a retaliatory step.

“An education department-related case was lodged against my client’s father-in law... My client was on central deputation, posted in Delhi at that time. Sudhir Kumar had no hand in his arrest. As an ex-CM, you are expected to know the relevant procedures and laws regarding the institution of a case and subsequent police investigation... By your statement you have tried to tarnish my client’s reputation which he has earned by hard work and dedication to his service during the last 25 years,” Chanchal’s lawyer wrote to Manjhi.

Talking to newsmen on Tuesday, Manjhi admitted receipt of the notice dated March 10. “I had made the statement on the basis of information provided by certain people who had come to meet me,” Manjhi said, adding he would soon reply to the legal notice.

Reacting over the development, former deputy CM and leader of opposition in

Bihar Legislative Council

Sushil Kumar Modi decried the practice of bureaucrats serving notice to politicians. “It’s not good for democracy,” he told reporters.

Incidentally, Modi had also been served a legal notice earlier by IAS official K K Pathak for his statement in media against Pathak’s style of functioning.