Uttarakhand Government has removed the state DGP, the Dehra Dun SSP and SP (city) from their posts, apparently bowing to pressure from ruling BJP MLAs after one of their colleagues was allegedly beaten up by police here.
Uttarakhand Director General of Police Subhash Joshi has been relieved with immediate effect for his new assignment in CRPF while Dehra Dun SSP Abhinav Kumar and SP(City) Jagatram Joshi have been transferred to police headquarters as DIG and Deputy Commandant of 46th PAC batallion Rudrapur respectively, a government spokesman today said.
Additional DGP Vijay Raghav Pant has now been made acting DGP of Uttarakhand, he said. G S Martolia would take the place of Kumar while Aseem Srivastav would hold the post of SP(City) in Dehra Dun, he said.
The decision to remove the top police officials was taken late last night after a delegation of ruling BJP MLAs met Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank and expressed their unhappiness over the incident and demanded a strict action.
However, when asked, the spokesman described the transfers as just a routine exercise. Rajkumar, the ruling BJP MLA from Sahaspur constituency, was stopped by police at Premnagar here on Sunday night in view of a traffic snarl in the area. This led to heated arguments between the MLA and the police, who allegedly dragged him out of his vehicle and thrashed him.
Angry over the beating up of the MLA, a large number of BJP workers damaged the furniture and important files of Premnagar police post creating tension in the area. The incident also angered the MLAs, who demanded stern action.
SI Manoj Negi and two constables-- Ravindra Kumar and Harendra Bist, who were found responsible for the incident following a preliminary inquiry-- were arrested and sent to jail yesterday. However, the action failed to pacify the agitated MLAs, who demanded the officials be removed.
Meanwhile, the Uttarakhand Government has created two new posts of Additional SPs in Dehra Dun. While Ajay Joshi has been made the Additional SP of Vikasnagar area, PC Joshi would hold the post of Additional SP of Rishikesh.