Barve’s order to transfer 31 cops put on hold

A transfer order of 31 Mumbai police officers that was issued by outgoing commissioner Sanjay Barve on February 27 was stayed on Saturday, the day he retired.

A transfer order of 31 Mumbai police officers that was issued by outgoing commissioner Sanjay Barve on February 27 was stayed on Saturday, the day he retired.

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Joint commissioner of police (administration) Naval Bajaj put on hold his former boss’s order and a wireless message was circulated across all units of the force, asking them to not relieve the officers for new postings.

Hindustan Times has a copy of the order issued by Bajaj on Saturday.

Mumbai Police officials, on condition of anonymity, said Bajaj had issued the order after consulting the new police commissioner Param Bir Singh, who took charge on Saturday.

The 31 officers included four assistant commissioner-rank officers and seven senior police inspectors.

Mumbai Police officials, who did not wish to be named, said many of these officers, who were to be transferred, were unhappy about Barve’s way of functioning.

“During his year-long tenure, he abruptly suspended and transferred many police officers,” said the official. “Last year, Barve had come down heavily on the economic offences wing (EOW) officers and had transferred those close to the department’s chief to side branches.”

Barve had also courted controversy by issuing show-cause notices to a dozen police officers who had shown interest in moving to the state’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and had written to director general of police (DGP) Subodh Jaisawal.

Barve had claimed that by approaching the DGP directly, these officers had bypassed him and violated protocol.

When Hindustan Times contacted Bajaj, he refused to comment. Barve, too, did not respond to queries.