MHA seeks action against police chief Rajeev Kumar

KOLKATA: The Kolkata Police-CBI tussle refuses to die down with the ministry of home affairs on Tuesday asking the Bengal chief secretary, Malay De, to initiate disciplinary proceedings against city pol-ice chief Rajeev Kumar for attending CM Mamata Banerjee’s dharna on Sunday.

The directive from the MHA, which is the cadre-controlling authority of IPS officers, comes a day after Jitendra Singh, Union minister for personnel, indicated that Kumar may have violated service rules by attending the dharna.

Banerjee, however, has shot back saying Kumar had only come to meet her and it wasn’t a political protest but done in her capacity as the state’s administrative head to save the Constitution.

“Rajeev Kumar never joined the dharna. He came to see me while I was on satyagraha. It was not a political programme. He came to do his duty because I was having a cabinet meeting near the dharna manch,” she said.

The Kolkata police commissioner reports to the state home secretary and the CM directly, unlike other states where commissioners report to the state DGP.

The MHA’s missive to the state chief secretary says Kumar, a 1989 batch IPS officer, “sat on a dharna along with some police officers with the chief minister, West Bengal at the Metro Channel in Kolkata, which is prima facie in contravention of the extant provisions of All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968 and AIS (Discipline & Appear) Rules, 1969”. “In view of the above, the West Bengal government has been requested by MHA to initiate action against the officer and intimate the action taken in this regard,” the MHA missive added.

The catch in these rules is that these do not apply when a “statement made or views expressed by a member of the service is in his official capacity and in the due performance of the duties assigned to him.” It is not without reason then that the chief minister reacted sharply to it.

The CM went on to clarify that the police commissioner was doing his duty as per protocol. “Police officers accompany CM, governor even during election campaigns. I fail to understand why they are after Rajeev Kumar. What is this other than political vendetta?” Mamata said, indicating she had a word with the chief secretary in this regard.

Police sources said the commissioner had certain security and traffic related discussions with the CM necessitating discussions, sources said. “The events leading up to the CM’s protest in Esplanade could easily have snowballed into a law and order issue unless steps were taken. For this a discussion was necessary,” the sources said.

The MHA’s communication highlighted among other rules that a service member shall not be a “member of, or be otherwise associated with, any political party or any organisation which takes part in politics, nor shall he take part in, or subscribe in aid of…any political movement or political party”.

It also emphasised that no member of the service “shall, in any radio broadcast or communication over any public media or in any document published…make any statement of fact or opinion which has the effect of an adverse criticism of any current or recent policy or action of the central government or a state government”, which is capable of embarrassing the relations between the central government and any state government.