Pasricha: Crying foul

Mumbai, Feb. 3: Parminder Singh Pasricha has narrowly avoided becoming the shortest-serving Mumbai police commissioner. He was shunted to the Maharashtra Police Housing Corporation today after just two months in the post.

Pasricha’s transfer has got police and bureaucratic circles asking if the police chief had bitten off more than he could chew. The top cop, who made sweeping transfers after taking over and did not hide his zeal to “cleanse the force’’, thinks so.

“This is the price you have to pay for taking on the system,’’ he said, his voice choking as he answered a telephone call.

The outgoing police chief, who has a PhD in traffic management, made his displeasure with the system apparent.

“I feel insulted. They shouldn’t have transferred me like this. This is a joke and I feel utterly humiliated. I think they just used me when they were going though a crisis,” Pasricha said.

The top cop avoided becoming the shortest-serving commissioner — that dubious honour goes to K.J. Nanawati who served in the post for one month, from December 24, 1959, to January 2, 1960. Pune police commissioner A.. Roy has replaced Pasricha.

The police commissioner had taken over after Ranjit Singh Sharma was transferred on November 19 last year. Sharma headed straight to jail after being arrested for allegedly shielding Abdul Karim Telgi, the kingpin in the multi-crore stamp paper scam.

With the money-for-police postings scandal and the involvement of many senior officers in the stamp scam sullying the image of Mumbai police as never before, Pasricha set about purging the system. A whopping 1,255 policemen were transferred at one go.

Some of the most feared crime branch encounter specialists were raided and removed from their influential postings, while Pasricha dubbed some city police stations as most corrupt. It was no secret that he had ruffled feathers among politicians and within his own department.

Police officers said they were “amazed’’ at the sudden transfer of Pasricha, who was regarded as a good officer. “I have absolutely no idea, there wasn’t even a whiff till yesterday,’’ a senior police officer at the Crawford Market headquarters of the police department said.

Pasricha himself said: “The only thing I can say is that I know some persons were not liking the changes I wanted to bring about in the system.’’ Asked if any politician was behind his transfer, he said: “I know who is behind it.’’ But he refused to name names.

Home minister R.R. Patil said politics should not be read into the transfer. Senior home department officials termed the transfer an administrative move.

Officials said the Union home ministry felt Mumbai police should be headed by an additional director-general — Pasricha was due for promotion as director-general. But the commissioner does not buy this argument.