Govt goes all out to protect Mohd Shahid

Neena Sharma

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, August 4

Former personal secretary to the Chief Minister Mohammed Shahid, who was recently caught in a sting operation that purportedly shows him making deals with private liquor distributors, may walk away with only a light reprimand amounting to adverse entry or stoppage of one increment. No case has been registered against him so far, clearly pointing to the government's efforts to "protect" him.

Sources say the state government, in all probability, would avoid handing over the case to the CBI or to its police. There would be room only for a departmental inquiry, which would suit the government and save the officer.

As the government will make all efforts to protect the officer, a departmental inquiry would tantamount to making adverse entries or stopping of an increment in concurrence with the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). In the long run, it can damage the prospects of the IAS officer looking for promotion and a central posting. However, it would save the government’s and the officer’s neck.

Further, the inquiry also hinges on the voice sampling that would have to be undertaken to make the things clear. The police have been asked to carry out a forensic examination of the CD, following which an inquiry would proceed under Principal Secretary Om Prakash. He would present the inquiry report to the government.

“As the IAS officer belongs to the Gujarat cadre, it is the Gujarat government in concurrence with the UPSC that would finally decide on the course of action,” said a former bureaucrat.

Significantly, in order to provide reprieve to the IAS officer after the Central Government issued a letter curtailing his deputation to Uttarakhand, the state government had sent a letter to the Centre expressing its inability to release the officer due to the inquiry set up here.

Maharaj seeks lie detector test of IAS officer

Dehradun: BJP workers staged a dharna  at Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Park here today demanding a CBI probe into the CD sting expose.

Notably, the CD was released by the BJP that purportedly shows the secretary of Chief Minister Harish Rawat negotiating with middlemen allegedly linked to private liquor distributors. The protesters led by BJP national executive member Satpal Maharaj alleged the sting CD sting expose had revealed that nexus of the state government with liquor mafia. 

Satpal Maharaj accused Chief Minister Harish Rawat of resorting to act of vendetta. He alleged,”By getting the house of a journalist, who exposed the government’s liquor mafia links, demolished, the CM has shown his real autocratic face.” 

Maharaj demanded the lie detector test of the CM’s personal secretary, Mohammed Shahid.  — TNS