Ironically, several officers who were in the contention for the ACB post, after Mathur was made the state DGP, have already retired or are due for retirement soon.
MORE THAN a year after the then director general of Maharashtra Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB), Satish Mathur, was given charge as of the state’s Director General of Police, the post left vacant by his redesignation remains vacant. A reply in response to a Right To Information (RTI) application filed by The Indian Express shows DGP Mathur, in April this year, wrote to Additional Chief Secretary (Home), Sudhir Shrivastava, requesting him to fill up the vacant post to avoid legal issues in future. The letter written on April 12, addressed to Shrivastava, says the post of DG, ACB, has been lying vacant since July 31, 2016.
It says apart from being the ACB chief, the DG is also a member of the Police Establishment Board. The PEB-1 that comprises five members, including the DG ACB — considered the second most important police posting after the DGP — recommends promotions and postings of IPS officers in the state.
The letter says: “The said post, if allowed to remain vacant for a long time, could lead to legal issues in the future”.
It adds: “There are policemen of the rank of Additional Director General (ADG) that are available for promotion to the rank of DG. A proposal to this effect has been sent to the government vide a letter on December 17, 2016. It is requested that the post of DG ACB be filled by the government by appointing a suitable officer at the earliest.” Repeated calls and text messages to Shrivastava went unanswered. Ironically, several officers who were in the contention for the ACB post, after Mathur was
made the state DGP, have already retired or are due for retirement soon.
After Datta Padsalgikar, a 1982 batch officer, was made the Mumbai Police Commissioner, senior DG rank officers who were eligible for the post included the then DG Home Guards and former Mumbai Police commissioner Rakesh Maria,
Meeran Borwankar and Prabhat Ranjan. While Maria retired on January 31 this year, Ranjan retired in August.
Borwankar, who went to Delhi on deputation as the DG, Bureau of Police Research and Development, is due to retire at the end of this month.
A former ACB head said: “The ACB DG is a sensitive posting. It is widely believed that till one point, the state government was not interested in appointing certain officers. But the post cannot be kept vacant for this long. The ACB chief is also part of the five-member panel that recommends postings of IPS officers.”
Retired IPS officer and former ACB DG Praveen Dixit, however, said: “In the absence of DG, ACB, it (the bureau) is headed by an ADG rank officer, which is good enough. It depends on the determination and the hard work of the officer in-charge to ensure the ACB functions properly.
In the absence of the DG, I believe the ADG ACB attends the PEB meetings.” Markings on the records of the PEB meetings for the past year accessed under the RTI, however, show the presence of the four other members of the board.