Supekar moved to Home Guards amid dowry death row

Supekar has been accused of attempting to protect the accused in the Vaishnavi Hagawane dowry harassment-suicide case

MUMBAI: The state home department on Friday transferred Jalinder Supekar, special inspector-general of police (jail headquarters) as deputy commandant-general, Home Guards, Mumbai. On Thursday, the state government had relieved Supekar of additional charge as deputy inspector-general of the Nashik, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Nagpur divisions of the jail department. Supekar’s original posting was IG (headquarters) of the jails department.

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Supekar has been accused of attempting to protect the accused in the Vaishnavi Hagawane dowry harassment-suicide case. He is the uncle of Vaishnavi’s husband, Shashank. Vaishnavi, daughter-in-law of expelled Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Rajendra Hagawane, died by suicide on May 16 in her marital home in Pimpri-Chinchwad. Her family has alleged that she was tortured by her in-laws for dowry. Police have arrested Rajendra Hagawane and his son Sushil in the case.

Following a complaint from social activist Anjali Damania to the state home department, additional chief secretary Radhiika Rastogi has asked additional director general (jails) Suhas Warke to investigate the matter and submit a report.

Damania had told the media last week that Supekar had allegedly helped the Hagawanes secure arms licences. “Supekar had also helped Nilesh Chavan, a friend of Hagawane, to get an arms licence even though there was a case against him. This must be fully investigated,” she had said.

Damania further alleged that Supekar had been given additional charge of jails despite an alleged scam in the purchase of rations and other materials for prisons in the state.

Jalinder Supekar did not answer HT’s phone calls on Friday.