Govt bulldozed transfers of politically important cops, bypassing rules

VIBHA VERMA

vibha@herald-goa.com

PANJIM: On a day when there was no clarity on who was the man who was holding charge as Goa’s Director General of Police, 23 police officers, including many PIs in charge of politically sensitive police stations were transferred and the order formally communicated a day later (December 24), the day the code of conduct came into effect.

On December 23, when the transfers were affected, the Goa police had two heads. IG Kishan Kumar, took charge at 3.15 pm on December 22, when the outgoing DGP Aditya Arya had still not handed over charge. In short the Government literally “snatched” charge from Aditya Arya, before it affected the transfers.

However, since Arya handed over charge only on December 23 at 5.15 pm, he was technically the DGP when the controversial transfers were pushed through without his concurrence or knowledge. The DGP heads the Police Establishment Board, which includes the IGP, DIG and the SP, Headquarters, who are supposed to meet and clear the transfers.

Speaking to Herald from Delhi where he is awaiting his next posting Dr Arya said “As a practice, the Police Establishment Board never met. The transfer list came from the Chief Minister’s office to the SP headquarters and then sent to the DGP, through other officers for his signature. The DGP was expected to put his signature on it. I suggested that a discussion take place, but that wasn’t liked”. 

That is exactly what must have happened in this case, but here, the file wasn’t sent to Aditya Arya, since the Government had already bought in Kishan Kumar who took charge post haste on December 22. This begs the question. Was the new DGP in any position to judge the merit of the transfers less than a day since he took charge? Secondly, with the outgoing DGP still not having handed over charge, the Police Establishment Board under him should have met.

Yet again the ethical practice of referring all transfers to the police establishment Board, which is supposed to meet formally, in the presence of the Director General of Police to decide on the transfers, was blatantly discarded.

Quite clearly, the transfers were forced through to beat the code of conduct. But they were done in a gross manner bypassing established rules for transfer, making the whole exercise null and void.

The Government now needs to answer straight questions posed by Herald below. It also asks the Election Commission to seek the same answers from the Government.

Does the Home Minister have these answers?

–          Did the Police Establishment Board meet in a joint sitting to approve the transfers of policemen? If yes, Herald demands the signed minutes of the meeting.

–          Outgoing DGP Arya confirms that he didn’t chair the PEB meeting. So who did?

–          If the meeting wasn’t held, then how were the transfers approved?

–          On December 23, when the transfers were done, the outgoing DGP Arya had not handed over charge, while the incoming DGP Kishan Kumar had taken charge. Who signed off the transfers?