Babu Ram, a 2009-batch IPS officer, has landed in trouble after a Sheikhpura court took cognisance against him on Tuesday in a case related to the torture of a youth.

A civil court, headed by judicial magistrate P.K. Srivastava, took cognisance against Babu Ram and four other policemen, who were deputed as the former's security guards during his stint as superintendent of police (SP) of Sheikhpura in 2013.

Babu Ram, hailing from Haryana, holds the SP's post of Aurangabad in south and central Bihar.

The court observed that there was enough evidence against the then SP, who was accused of illegal confinement of a youth, Mukesh Kumar, alias Chhoti, and his subsequent torture in police custody on January 26, 2013.

The criminal investigation department (CID), which was earlier entrusted with probing the charges against Babu Ram, had, however, given clean chit to him. His four security guards - Sandip Kumar, Binod Kumar, Rakesh and Kundan Kumar - were found guilty.

The CID had also found the allegations against the then SP's driver, Manu Pratap, and sub-inspector Mukesh Kumar Verma to be true and submitted a chargesheet against them in the court concerned.

The victim's counsel, Bipin Kumar, said: "The court has ordered the issue of summons against all the accused, including the then SP Babu Ram." The court has fixed July 10 as the next date of hearing of the case.

They have been booked under sections 341 (illegal confinement), 323 (assault), 326 (voluntarily causing grievous injury), 120(B) (conspiracy) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

An FIR was lodged against Babu Ram and other policemen with the Barbigha police station in Sheikhpura district after the intervention of senior police officers. The 24-year-old victim was illegally confined at the official residence of the then SP and subsequently subjected to harassment.

The matter came to the fore when Mukesh fell unconscious and was admitted to Patna Medical College and Hospital for treatment. The victim was later taken to Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences for better treatment on government expenses.

Babu Ram was shifted to the police headquarters after much hullabaloo. However, he was later appointed as superintendent of police of Samastipur in north Bihar and subsequently transferred to Aurangabad.

Two liquor traders, identified as Shailendra Singh and Mantoo Singh, were allegedly involved in picking up the victim, a resident of Toye village in Sheikhpura district, and subsequently handing him over to the police.

Mukesh had allegedly been pressuring the traders to pay his salary for a little over three months. He worked as salesman at the liquor shop of the traders.