Strange are the ways of the government. Two police officers, whose houses were raided by the Lokayukta and crores of rupees in cash and assets disproportionate to their known sources of income last year were recovered— have now been rewarded with promotion.
    On Monday, the two officers, inspectors Shamiur Rahman and Mir Arif Ali, were elevated to the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police on Monday.
   On March 14, 2006 the Lokayukta had raided the houses of these two police officers and three of their colleagues and unearthed Rs 65 crore in cash and assets.
   At the time of the Lokayukta raid, Shami-ur-Rehman was working at the City Crime Branch’s Fraud and Misappropriation Wing. Following the raid, he was kept under suspension and later reinstated and posted at the Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement (DCRE).
   Now, he is all set to assume charge as DySp, Intelligence, Bangalore.
   According to the Lokayukta records, Mir Arif Ali was at the Koramangala police station. After suspension, he was rehabilitated in the DCRE. He is likely to occupy the chair of Dy SP — Central Range Head Quarters at IG office, Bangalore.
   After the Lokayukta raids, complaints started pouring in against the two officers. There were reports that Mir Ali had not registered several cases of robbery. A software engineer identified his stolen jewellry amongst the ornaments found in the officer’s bank locker during the raids. Another resident of Jeevanbimanagar told the then commissioner of police that the inspector had closed as undetected a case of burglary in his house.
   Usha Gopinath, another software engineer from Sarjapur, alleged that inspector Ali did not register a case against her in-laws for harassing her and trying to evict her from their joint family house.
   Within 24 hours, the then police Commissioner Ajai Kumar Singh placed the two inspectors under suspension and both were arrested by the Lokayukta police.
   The raid had made headlines. The then Lokayuta  who had conducted the raid, had said: "Normally cases based on raids take months or even years because documents have to be traced, examined and authenticated. In this case, I had directed the Lokayukta officials to expedite the matter so that justice is not delayed.
   “Our government is 40 days old and will see to it the police officers enquiry goes uninterrupted. The new government is committed to tackling corruption and will go all out to end this menace. A detail enquiry will be ordered into the police officers wealth,” Chief Minister HDK had said in the aftermath of the raids.
   However, in just above a year after the raid, the two tainted policemen have been rewarded with promotions.
Puttaswamy, another officer who name also figured in Lokayuta raid, has also been promoted from Dy SP to SP.  He is posted as Additional SP Home Guards training commadant.