Siliguri, April 27: A court here has show-caused the inspector-in-charge of the Siliguri police station, Prabhat Chakraborty, for disobeying one of its orders.

The judicial magistrate (second court) of Siliguri, Amal Sarkar, asked Chakraborty to reply to the notice by tomorrow.

The order comes after the police officer’s continued absence from the hearing of a case relating to the seizure of 950kg of copper and brass wire scrap worth Rs 2 lakh and the arrest of its owner Arun Tiwari in 1996.

Tiwari was arrested for carrying the scrap without any document, but was discharged after a few months by a court, his lawyer Kishan Lal Lohia said.

In 1998, Tiwari moved the district and session’s court, with a prayer that the seized scrap be returned to him. The court asked the Siliguri police to hand over the material. However, the police failed to return it even 10 years after the order.

“Finding no response from the police, another petition was filed with the judicial magistrate (second court). The court asked the police station to bring the scrap to court for hand over,” Lohia said.

But the police neither returned the material nor produced it in court. Instead, they furnished “contradictory” reports to the court, Lohia added.

On June 26 last year, the court instructed Chakraborty to clarify. But there has been no response from him till date, Lohia said. The show-cause notice was served on him on April 18.

Chakraborty said: “I have received the notice. I will provide necessary information to the court in the appropriate manner and at the right time.”