MUMBAI: IPS officer Sanjay Pandey on Thursday wrote to the chief minister questioning how he was assigned serious confidential inquiries in the recent past if he has not been a competent officer.
Pandey’s letter follows the government’s decision on Wednesday to shift him to the Maharashtra State Security Corporation, considered an insignificant posting. He is the seniormost IPS officer in the state.
In his letter to CM Uddhav Thackeray and home minister Anil Deshmukh, Pande stated, “If I was an incompetent officer with a much maligned record these oversights might be reasonable. But on the contrary it was recognising my competence and integrity, from among all the police officers in Maharashtra, I was entrusted serious confidential enquiries in the recent past.”
Pandey has submitted a report against an additional DGP following complaints of his links with people of questionable background. Pandey, who was asked by the government to probe the matter, has also mentioned how a former city police commissioner threatened witnesses in this case and a senior IAS officer’s interference to stall the case. Pandey spoke about another confidential probe pertaining to a Pune-based reputed company where a former state DGP attempted to scuttle the probe. Based on Pandey’s report, a case was later registered.
The letter further read, “I am anguished to state that for reasons unknown to me, my career as a police officer in Maharashtra state has been purposely blocked. I have for last several years been bearing out this injustice, but now with your recent orders/actions in the past few months I feel it is just to place this on record, with a hope that some course correction may still be possible.”
In the last two months, Pandey is the third senior IPS officer of Maharashtra cadre to have expressed anger against the state government’s interference in policing and transferring policemen.