Fight of might?

Ranchi, Feb. 19: Chief secretary P.P. Sharma today approached the state government seeking action against inspector-general (IG) of police Amitabh Chaudhary “for making wild allegations and violating the service rules”.

In a letter to the director-general of police (DGP), Sharma has sought a high-level probe into the entire episode.

“Either ADGP (CID) G.S. Rath or IG Amitabh Chaudhary has made the revelations regarding the correspondence between the two officers,” he said.

The chief secretary has also apprised chief minister Madhu Koda of the matter, requesting him to issue necessary directives. “Chaudhary’s note has come at a time when I was slated to submit a report against him (IG),” Sharma wrote in a letter to Koda.

Koda, however, reacted cautiously, saying he had not received any such report. “To act on a newspaper report would be against the rules of executive business,” he said.

In a bid to turn the heat on Chaudhary, Sharma said the IG’s own track record as an officer of Indian Police Service (IPS) has been far from fair. “Chaudhary has been implicated in a case which can attract punishment involving imprisonment and fine both. The case relates to alleged misappropriation of funds of Bihar Cricket Association/Cricket Association of Jharkhand,” Sharma pointed out.

Chaudhary, the IG, (organised crime), criminal investigation department (CID), cited a complaint from Patna lawyer Jitendra Tiwari (raising two cases) for his note sheet to the ADGP seeking action against the chief secretary.

“One of them is a criminal proceeding, pending against him since 1988. The other case was based on the then health secretary Shivendu’s report pointing out several acts of omissions and commissions committed by him in 2005 in the health department,” the IG said in the note sheet.

He alleged that Sharma got promoted to the chief secretary’s rank in 2004 by suppressing facts and misleading the government saying that no case was pending against him in Patna.

“The fact was that the relevant criminal proceeding was still pending,” the IG maintained in the note.

The second case dates back to when Sharma was the health secretary of Jharkhand. He allegedly awarded the contract for purchase of vaccine carriers and freezers to Burke Products India, a subsidiary of Ohio-based Burke Products Inc, flouting the norms.

The chief secretary, on the other hand, trashed the charges saying the case referred by the IG was dismissed by the CJM and then the Bihar government’s appeal against it was also turned down by the higher court.

“This has not only hurt the dignity of the chief secretary’s position but also tarnished the image of the state government,” Sharma pointed out in the letter to the DGP.