Mumbai police chief Sanjay Barve's family-run firm got government contract under BJP rule

MUMBAI: Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Barve on Wednesday acknowledged that a firm owned by his family was awarded a contract of digitisation of the city police's official records by the previous BJP government in Maharashtra.

Barve told PTI that the firm offered its services free of cost and there was no question of any financial gains to it. However, an official said that the project did not take off due to some technical issues.

The project of police records' digitisation was awarded to CrispQ Information Technologies Pvt Ltd for five years by the previous Devendra Fadnavis-led government before the state Assembly polls were held in October last year. The company is owned by Barve's son Sumukh Barve and wife Sharmila Barve.

The firm sent a proposal on September 30, 2019 to the state government, offering its service "pro bono" (work undertaken voluntarily and without payment) to provide paperless office system to the Mumbai Police through a software called 'Notesheet Plus', an official said.

"A copy of the proposal was marked to the Chief Minister's Office (CMO). Records, complaints and service documents of the Mumbai Police personnel were to be digitised with the help of the specified software," the official said.

He said that the proposal was approved by the government as the company was going to do the work for free, and the Mumbai Police Commissioner's office was also directed to finalise the number of units and files for the digitisation work. However, he added that the project did not start due to some technical issues.

When contacted, Barve said, "The company had offered its service 'pro bono' and it was for the benefit of the Mumbai Police." The software, which was offered to be used by the company, is free and there is no question of any financial gains to the firm, he said. Barve is retiring from service on February 29.