S.K. Bhalla
Today's piece is on the basis of an RTI disclosure bearing No. VO/RTI/PIO-7038 dated 28.04.2016 enlisting a large number of police officials against whom enquiries are being conducted for serious charges at snail's pace. Interestingly, many of them had since retired.
The complete information in the form of representation was sent to Ms. Mehbooba Mufti and a copy of the same sent to Mr. N. N. Vohra, Mr. B. R. Sharma and Mr. R. K. Goyal along with complete details. At point No. 4 of the representation by way of an illustration the prominent Officers whose names figured in the list were listed viz Kuldeep Khoda, Gopal Sharma, Farooq Ahmed, Z. H. Chusti, H. K. Lohia, Dilbagh Singh, Muneer Khan, Sushil Sharma, Ashkoor Wani, Mushtaq Ahmed Sadiq, A. K. Atri, Ghulam Rasool Dar, Firdous Ahmed, A. K. Mahajan, Abdul Rashid Bhat, Ravinder Singh Jamwal, Khalid Muzaffar, S. R. Samuel, Abdul Rashid Illahi, Mohd. Shafi Mir, Sarwar Chouhan and Mehraj-ud-Din Shah.
Apart from the aforesaid several officers viz Chief Prosecuting Officers like Parshotam Kumar Sharma, Ravinder Kumar Rao, Mohd. Ashraf Bakshi and Harvinder Singh are part of the list of dignitaries. There is a huge list of Dy. SPs, Inspectors, Sub-inspectors and other lower rung police personnel. Luckily, the complete list provided by PIO Vigilance organization on 28.04.2016 is with the Civil Vigilance Cell J&K and in the coming weeks the same will be published in the columns of this esteemed Daily like the already published list of land grabbers that sent shock waves among the high and mighty in J&K.
The representation seeks time bound competition of investigations and finalization of enquiries registered against 791 Police Officers/officials of J&K Police who are facing serious charges of corruption/abuse of official position as the SVO is sitting over the complaints for years together because of a tacit understanding among the various echelons of the investigating agency and the delinquent Police Officers serving in different capacities in state of J&K.
Already the Hon'ble State High Court is currently seized of a PIL regarding 147 departmental enquiries but what seems as of now that the wings of state machinery may use tactics to prolong the enquiries to take further 100-year to finally dispose of the same.
Readers, this is nothing but ‘institutional protection' and it was expected in that representation that the tainted Police Officers/Officials will be shown the door. At page-5, para-12 reads “That it is being shared with the Home Minister of the State with concern that Officers involved in shady land deals are occupying prime positions in various premier investigating agencies and this is being viewed by the public as a slur on good governance and it is hoped that a better sense will prevail by posting such officers to the posts they actually deserve”.
For activists the ground is fertile for approaching State Accountability Commission to test as to how and when the truth prevails.
