2 women IPS officers sacked for long ''unauthorised leave''

New Delhi, February 22

Two women IPS officers, including one summoned by a Ghaziabad court in an alleged extra-judicial killings case, have been sacked from the government services for "unauthorised leave" for a long period.

Jyoti S Belur, a 1993-batch officer of Uttarakhand cadre and Maria Lou Fernandes, a 1991-batch officer of Maharashtra cadre, were removed from the services and their "unauthorised absence" was "deemed resigned".

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The Home Ministry's decision comes weeks after two senior IPS officers —Mayank Sheel Chohan, a 1998-batch UT cadre officer, and Raj Kumar Dewangan, a 1992-batch Chhattisgarh cadre officer — were sacked by the government after they were found "not fit" to continue in the service due to their "non-performance".

Belur, 48, has been absent since 2001 after she was shifted to Uttarakhand cadre in 2000 following carving of the new state from Uttar Pradesh.

Belur is currently believed to be based in the UK while Fernandes had in her reply said she was pursuing PhD in the US.

Belur's name figured in an alleged fake encounter case which took place in Ghaziabad in 1996 in which four persons were killed.

A bullet recovered from one of the bodies was found to be fired from the official revolver of Belur, who was then serving as Circle Officer of Modi Nagar.

However, it is not yet clear whether the bullet was fired by her or if her weapon was used by someone else.

Despite repeated summons by the court, she did not turn up for appearance as she had moved to the UK.

Last Monday, a CBI court in Ghaziabad pronounced four other policemen guilty in the case. — PTI