Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil. (File Photo) A delegation of Congress leaders, including School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad, met Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil on Wednesday seeking the rollback of the state government’s nod to a proposal to allow junior police officers to probe cases lodged under the atrocity Act.
The delegation said that Walse Patil assured them that the investigating officers of the cases registered under SC and ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989, would be assistant commissioner of police (ACP) and deputy superintendent of police (DySP)-rank officers as was the case earlier.
“As soon as we pointed out to Minister Walse Patil that this undermined the purpose of the original atrocities Act, he assured that the proposed changes in this circular would not be implemented,” said Siddharth Hattiambire, chairman of the Scheduled Castes department of the state Congress.
Recently, the state law and judiciary department had approved a proposal to grant powers to inspectors and assistant inspectors to probe cases filed under the Act, along with the ACPs and DySPs, instead of only ACPs and DySPs. Currently, all police cases registered under the Act are probed by assistant commissioner of police-rank officers, who are senior to inspectors and assistant inspectors.
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