Policemen stand outside DIG Ajay Verma’s residence in Patna. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Sept. 12: The Ajay Verma case took an interesting turn today with inspector-general of police (Tirhut range) Sunit Kumar ordering a raid on the “wanted” officer‘s residence in Patna.

But the CID, which had been given responsibility of the case against the deputy inspector-general (railway), was not aware of the raid order.

Verma, absconding since August 17 in connection with a case of trespass and criminal intimidation, yesterday surprised all by joining duty at his office here.

Curiously, no police team tried to arrest the DIG, who stayed in office for five hours. He could not be found at home today during the raid.

The Tirhut IG, while confirming that the CID was in “control” of the case, told The Telegraph: “As the arrest warrant still stands against Verma, Vaishali police conducted (a) raid on Verma’s residence today.”

Asked if the raid order did not “flout” the police manual, Kumar said: “The court order is supreme. When a case is controlled by the CID, the district police is free to conduct investigation to comply with the court order.”

However, Rule 425 of the police manual states that once the CID or any other superior investigating agency takes over a case, IGs and DIGs “shall refrain from passing further order or comment in the case”.

Additional director-general of police (CID) Anand Shankar, however, did not appear too pleased with Kumar’s raid order. “I did not order any raid. We are sorting out the matter in consultation with experts,” he said.

Kumar, on the other hand, insisted that he did not go against the rules. “As the CID is just controlling Verma’s case, we can look into the matter,” he argued.

Legal experts have raised doubts over the tenability of the arrest warrant.

A senior lawyer of Patna High Court said as Verma was not an a “convict who had escaped” or a “proclaimed offender”, nor was he accused of a “non-bailable offence”, the arrest warrant did not have much legal force.

The high court is likely to hear Verma’s anticipatory bail plea tomorrow.