After a high-level inquiry gave a clean chit to senior IPS officer G. Sampath Kumar in the sensational IPL betting scam, the State government has revoked his suspension from service.
The 1997-batch officer was placed under suspension pending inquiry in February 2014 based on a special report of the Crime Branch CID, which alleged that he extorted ₹60 lakh from the accused in the IPL cricket betting case and hence failed to maintain absolute integrity and violated Sub-Rule (1) of Rule 3 of the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968.
Sources in the Home Department said that the then Director-General of Police K. Radhakrishnan was entrusted with the task of inquiring into allegations that he had conspired with Mahendra Singh Ranka, one of the suspected bookies who extorted money from other bookies, namely Gowtham Chand Nimani, Ugamraj Surana, Mahaveer Chand and Uttam C. Jain alias Kitty, involved in the IPL betting case. The crux of the inquiry was to find out whether Mr. Kumar received a bribe of ₹60 lakh.
The IPS officer was also charged with violation of service rules by giving interviews to two television channels criticising the investigation of the CBCID, commenting on the transfer policy of the government and leaking details of his deposition before the Justice Mukul Mudgal Committee appointed by the Supreme Court in 2014 to probe the betting allegations.
Deposing before the committee, he had suggested an investigation by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the scam.
Charge unsubstantiated
After perusing voluminous documents and examining specific aspects of the special report, Mr. Radhakrishnan found the main charge of corruption against Mr. Kumar “unsubstantiated”. Though the report was submitted in March 2017, it took one year for the government to decide on revoking the suspension of the officer. The other charges relating to the officer, such as giving interviews to television channels, have been proved, for which the government may issue a warning and close the case or initiate disciplinary action, sources said.
A copy of Mr. Radhakrishnan’s report on the corruption charge was made available to The Hindu. The inquiry officer noted that the whole edifice of the departmental proceedings was built on the strength of the so-called second confession statement of Mahendra Singh Ranka who subsequently turned hostile. All the money transactions between individuals remained uncorroborated. Of the 14 private witnesses who spoke about corruption during the preliminary enquiry, eight had turned hostile during the oral inquiry.
The inquiry officer has said that the prosecution “has not let in even an atom of evidence to show that there was any meeting of minds between Mahendra Singh Ranka and the Charged Officer (Mr. Kumar) to prove the element of conspiracy to extort money...None of the prosecution witnesses examined in the Oral Enquiry had stated that the Charged Officer had demanded money from any one of them.”
The inquiry report concluded that the charge of corruption against Mr. Kumar was “unsubstantiated”.
Though the departmental enquiry has concluded, police sources said that the criminal case initiated by the CBCID in the IPL match fixing/betting scam was pending in a special court here. After a Judicial Magistrate rejected the first charge-sheet by pointing to certain lapses in the investigation, the case was transferred to another court where the second charge-sheet is yet to be filed, the sources added.
