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Could strip you of medals, Centre warns Bengal cops
The home ministry has written to the West Bengal government, asking it to initiate action against the officers.
As many as six Indian Police Service (IPS) officers of West Bengal, including director general of police Virendra Kumar, may face disciplinary action for participating in a political rally with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, a senior home ministry official, who did not want to be named, said.
In addition, the ministry home affairs (MHA) is also writing to all other states asking them to ensure that officers of uniformed services do not participate in political rallies or violate service rules.
The home ministry has written to the West Bengal government, asking it to initiate action against the officers.
“The central government has taken a dim view of serving officers of uniformed forces taking part in sit-in protests/dharnas,” the official said.
MHA is also evaluating whether the officers can be stripped off their meritorious awards, removed from the seniority list, and also be barred from being considered for positions with the Union government.
The directions from MHA could trigger another round of hostilities between the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal and the Centre.
The last round began when a team of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officers tried to question Kolkata Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar for his alleged involvement in the Saradha chit fund case. The team was not allowed to.
Chief minister Banerjee sat on a dharna protesting the move, which she saw as an act of war.
Both sides quietened down after the Supreme Court ordered the Kolkata Police commissioner to cooperate with CBI, and also asked the agency to not take any “coercive action” against Kumar.
Besides Kumar and West Bengal DGP Virendra Kumar, the four other officers in the line of fire are ADG-security Vineet Kumar Goyal, ADG-law and order Anuj Sharma, commissioner of police (Bidhan Nagar) Gyanwant Singh, and additional commissioner of Kolkata Police Supratim Sarkar.
The action being considered against the “delinquent” officers includes “withdrawing medals or decorations which were conferred on them for meritorious services and removal from their names from empanelled [seniority] list and bar them for a certain period from serving in the central government,” the official said.
Retired police officers aren’t sure this can be done. “It all depends on why the police officers were at the gathering. If the officers were at a rally because of official duty and were directed to do so by the state government, it will be difficult to strip them of medals and honours. Often police officers are part of the security detail, etc,” former director general of Bureau of Police Research and Development NR Wassan said.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Centre wrote to the state asking for action to be taken against Kolkata Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar on similar grounds.The home ministry said in the letter that every member of the service should at all times maintain absolute integrity and devotion to duty and do nothing which is unbecoming of a member of the service. It added that no member of the service should be a member of, or be otherwise associated with, any political party or any organisation that takes part in politics.
