CM Uddhav Thackeray never paid heed to report on police transfers and promotion racket: Devendra Fadnavis

In what could spark off a turmoil in Maharashtra politics, the BJP has accused Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray of being silent on an intelligence report that had exposed a "large scale transfers and promotion racket” involving the Maharashtra Police.

Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis has demanded a CBI probe into the incident and is going to New Delhi to meet Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla and submit the letters, documents and digital records to the tune of 6.3 GB.

“There is a large-scale corruption and exchange of money in transfers and promotion of policemen. It is a big racket. However, I would be naming as there are some beneficiaries and the role of several people have come to light. There are names of IPS officers, non-IPS officers in the report,” said Fadnavis, a two-time Chief Minister, who had handled Home portfolio, for five years.

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Fadnavis said that the report was prepared by the then Commissioner of State Intelligence Department Rashmi Shukla and submitted to then Director General of Police Subodh Jaiswal on 25 August 2020.

Subsequently, Jaiswal forwarded the report to then Additional Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte with a note that the issue should be brought to the attention of the Chief Minister.

Fadnavis said that a briefing was given to Thackeray, and the latter forwarded the report to Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.

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It may be noted that Kunte is currently the Chief Secretary, while Jaiswal and Shukla have opted to move to the Centre. While Jaiswal is the Director-General of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Shukla is the Additional Director General of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

“There was no action on the report,” Fadnavis alleged, adding that on the other hand Shukla was punished. “She was moved out of SID and made Director General Civil Defence, a post that does not exist. She was given a 10 feet by 10 feet room to sit,” he said.