The collectorate office from where the Gaya district magistrate operates. Telegraph picture

Patna, Nov. 15: Gaya seems to be jinxed for many Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers posted there as district magistrates during elections. The present incumbent, Sanjay Kumar, is no exception.

Kumar is under the scanner of the Election Commission (EC) allegedly for not co-operating with CRPF personnel deployed at Gaya on poll duty. Before him, four district magistrates were shunted out during the Assembly or Lok Sabha polls. A source said some senior officers of CRPF complained to the Border Security Force headquarters, accusing Kumar of non-cooperation. The CRPF officials, in a letter to the headquarters, a copy of which was also sent to the EC, states that despite repeated reminders, the district administration failed to cater to the requirement of the security forces.

The letter alleged that barbed wires and sand bags for morchas were not provided adequately to the forces, putting the lives of the personnel on duty at risk. Additional chief electoral officer Kumar Anshumali said he had not yet received any letter from the CRPF officials. “Let me inquire about the matter first,” he told The Telegraph.

Kumar could not be contacted for his comment.

This is not the first time a district magistrate of Gaya is in trouble over election duty. Rajbala Verma, S.M. Raju, Brajesh Mehrotra and Chaitanya Prasad were relieved of poll duty and shifted from Gaya in the middle of elections, said a source. The EC had warned that it would initiate departmental proceedings against Raju, who was charged with releasing former member of the Legislative Assembly Binod Kumar Yadvendu. He was arrested for trying to vitiate the poll process during the 1998 Lok Sabha elections. Raju is now posted as the divisional commissioner of Muzaffarpur.

Verma, now posted in Jharkhand, was removed from Gaya after she was found wearing a green saree with white border — similar to the party symbol of erstwhile Janata Dal — at an election rally of former chief minister Lalu Prasad in Gaya in 1995. Subsequently Opposition party leaders complained to the EC, leading to her transfer.

Though her successor Rajiv Gauba was allowed to conduct election, the EC passed strictures against him after 1996 Lok Sabha polls. Similarly, Brajesh Mehrotra was unceremoniously removed from Gaya following complains of anomalies in preparation of the electoral rolls.