12 Sr. Cops face Departmental Action for seeking Transfer without due process

June 21, 2019:

Police Commissioner Sanjay Barve issues second show cause notice to the officers for ‘not following protocol’, asks why their increments shouldn’t be withheld.

The tug of war between Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Barve & the state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) led by Deven Bharti has turned uglier, with Barve in no mood to forgive the 12 officers who bypassed him & applied directly to DGP Subodh Jaiswal while seeking transfer to the ATS. The dozen in the dock -- Senior Inspector Dinesh Kadam, Inspectors Nitin Alaknure Nandkumar Gopale, Dnyaneshwar Wagh, Sudhir Dalvi, & Santosh Bhalekar, & Assistant Inspectors Wilson Rodrigues, Ashwini Koli, Vishal Gaikwad, Laxmikant Salunke, Deepali Kulkarni, & Deep Bane – were issued a second show cause notice on Tuesday at the behest of Barve, asking why their increments should not be withheld for breaching protocol. In what is seen as a snub to the police commissioner, the DGP has approved the 12 officers’ transfer to the ATS.

The 12 officers who have worked closely with Bharti from the time he was the joint commissioner of police (law & order), applied for transfer a few days after he was moved to the ATS as in-charge in May.

While it is common practice among senior police officers to take along subordinates close to them whenever they are transferred, Barve was miffed as the officers had failed to follow the procedure, wherein he/she must submit a transfer request to the chief of the unit they are serving in, which in this case was the police commissioner.

Subsequently, the officers were issued the first show cause notice by Joint Commissioner of Police (administration) Naval Bajaj on June 13.

‘No mala fide intention’

Replying to the first show cause notice, the 12 officers said there was no mala fide intention in applying directly to the DGP, nor was it their intention to bypass their department head. A police department source said the 12 officers’ excuse was that it was a common practice in the force to send transfer requests directly to the Maharashtra Police’s senior-most officer, the DGP.

The officers confirmed receiving the second show cause notice even as there was no communication from Barve’s office yesterday. A few of the 12 cops in the dock said that they have been caught in the cross-fire between two top officers despite all of them having “excellent service records”.

Most of them have worked closely with Rakesh Maria when he was the police commissioner of Mumbai & obviously with Bharti when he served the JCP, law & order. “A few of the dozen are experts in terror investigation & played crucial roles in probing blast cases in the city,” the police source said.

The source said it was “very likely” that increments of the 12 cops will be withheld. “Apart from the financial loss, this will be a career setback as it will show up on their service records when it’s time for promotions & rewards,” the source said.

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pic by mumbaimirror