71 IPS officers warned for not filing asset declaration

As many as 71 Indian Police Service (IPS) officers in Bihar, including 18 on central deputation, have been warned by the state administration that their salary could be stopped and departmental action initiated if they failed to submit a declaration of their movable and immovable properties for 2021-22 by the stipulated deadline.

As many as 71 Indian Police Service (IPS) officers in Bihar, including 18 on central deputation, have been warned by the state administration that their salary could be stopped and departmental action initiated if they failed to submit a declaration of their movable and immovable properties for 2021-22 by the stipulated deadline.

IPS and IAS officers attending review preparedness meeting for the Bihar Assembly elections in Sept 30, 2020. As per the existing state government rule, all officers have to submit list of their assets for yearly analysis. (HT Archives)

According to a circular issued on Tuesday by the home department, officials have been asked to furnish the details at the earliest to avoid any action.

As per the existing state government rule, all officers have to submit list of their assets for yearly analysis, the deadline for which was February 28.

Home department’s secretary K Senthil Kumar, in a letter to Director-General of Police (DGP) Sanjiv Kumar Singhal on Monday, asked him to issue a show cause notice to the erring IPS officers.

The police headquarters has directed them to furnish details of their immovable properties to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and reply to the show cause notice by March 31. “Not doing so will invite denial of vigilance clearance, which will ultimately block their promotion,” reads in the show cause letter.

The Bihar government has made it mandatory for each public servant, including IAS and IPS officials, to submit a statement showing their movable and immovable assets every year while the MHA has made a provision for IPS officers to file return of their immovable properties each year by February 28.

Senior IPS officers who have been served a show-cause notice include Sheel Vardhan Singh, Manmohan Singh, A S Rajan, Neeraj Sinha, Praveen Vashistha, Arvind Kumar, Amit Kumar, Dr Paresh Saksena, Anupama S NIlekar Chandra, Pankaj Kumar Darad, Jagmohan, Sudhanshu Kumar, Nishant Kumar Tiwari, Ratna Sanjay Katiyar, O N Bhaskar, Sidhartha Mohan Jain, Daljeet Singh, Rajiv Mishra, Hari Prasad S (all on central deputation), besides many district superintendent of police(SPs) and additional superintendent of police(ASPs) posted in the field.