Lucknow, September 11
Taking the bull by its horns, the Mayawati government today suspended 12 DIG-level IPS officers for “gross irregularities” in the recruitment of 6,504 constables in the civil police and Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) during the Mulayam Singh Yadav regime.
All the 6,504 recruitments from 12 districts have been annulled. Besides these IPS officers, all members of the 14 recruitment boards are being charge-sheeted. This includes 18 additional SP-level officers and 40 CO or deputy SP-level officers.
Among the suspended 12 IPS officers heading the 14 recruitment boards are two who are presently on central deputation.
Letters recommending their suspension have already been dispatched to the Centre. They are Daljeet Singh Chaudhury, presently private secretary to union home minister Shriprakash Jaiswal, and Mukul Goel, DIG ITBP.
The remaining 10 suspended IPS officers are Chavinath Singh (IPS ’85 batch), R.N. Yadav (IPS ’86), S.K. Mathur (IPS ’90), B.P. Jogdand (IPS ’91), S.P. Singh (IPS ’89), B.M. Tripathi (IPS ’89), B.B. Bakshi (IPS ’90), Akhilesh Mehrotra (IPS ’88), S.K. Gupta (IPS ’93) and K. Satyanarain (IPS ’98).
DGP Vikram Singh confirmed that FIRs would be filed against
some of these officers at the Hazratganj police station by late tonight.
The stern government action that came this evening is said to be the proverbial tip of the iceberg. A four-member probe committee had been set up on June 13 to look into the recruitment process of 22,000 constables through 55 boards set up for the purpose.
Till now, reports of only 14 boards have been submitted.
Briefing media, principal secretary J.N. Chambers said the committee, headed by ADG STF Shailjakant Mishra, is working at a frenzied pace and would complete its investigations by September 30.
Elaborating on the nature of irregularities, the principal secretary said strangely the average time spent by an interviewee before the board is coming to merely 20 to 30 seconds.
There is widespread cutting and overwriting on the answer-sheets, where faulty totalling has been found. In some answer-sheets, another person’s handwriting has been established by handwriting experts.
Gross irregularities in the physical examination have been found. “Persons with less than the prescribed height have not just been called by the board, but selected as well.”
Many of the high school, caste or freedom fighter dependent certificates have also been found to be forged, he informed.
According to the principal secretary, the matter would now be handed over to the Anti Corruption Organisation for further investigation.
He also informed about the government decision to set up a three-member committee to review the entire recruitment process and suggest measures to keep it transparent.
Following the committee’s recommendation the recruitment process would begin within six months, assured Chamber.
The members of the review committee are secretary (home) Renuka Kumar, ADG (telecom) O.P.S. Malik and DIG (intelligence) Aditya Mishra.
A major chunk of the 2,714 of the 6,504 recruitments annulled belonged to the former CM Mulayam Singh Yadav’s strongeholds of Etawah (both PAC and civil police), Mainpuri and Kannuaj.
The other recruitment boards against whom action was taken today were at Allahabad, Varanasi, Bareilly, Jhansi, Ghazipur, Sonebhadra, Kanpur Dehat and Gorakhpur.
