Kolkata: The West Bengal CBI-Kolkata Police faceoff has had an ugly fallout: the Ministry of Home Affairs has asked the Mamata Banerjee government to initiate disciplinary action against five police officers who took part in public protests against the investigating agency earlier this week. It also plans to strip them of their medals in keeping with the All India Service Rules.
If that were not enough, the Union government may also remove the names of the officers from an empanelled list and bar them from serving at the central level for a certain period of time. Electronic media sources identified the officers as West Bengal Director General Of Police Virendra, Additional Director General of Police Vineet Kumar Goyal, Additional General of Police (Law and Order) Anuj Sharma, Commissioner of Police (Bidhanagar Commissionerate) Gyanwant Singh, and Additional Commissioner of Police (Kolkata) Supratim Darkaar. Although the Bengal government is not obliged to follow the order, it will only drive a wedge between the state and the centre. The effect on the morale of the State police will also be debilitating.
West Bengal CM Banerjee had launched a sit-in protest on February 4 against the CBI’s attempts to question Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in connection with the Saradha and Rose Valley chit fund scams. Kumar was present at the rally, which is being construed as participation in a political activity.
In its communication to the West Bengal chief secretary on February 5, the MHA said as per information received, Kumar sat on dha rna with Banerjee along with some police officers at the Metro Channel in Kolkata, which is prima facie in contravention to service rules.