Rakesh Maria shunted, not from Sheena probe

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government on Tuesday abruptly shifted Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria as director-general of police (home guards), a “not so important” post, 22 days before his tenure as Mumbai CP was to end.

The seniormost IPS officer, Ahmed Javed, was appointed as the new Mumbai police commissioner with immediate effect.

However, following an outcry, the government took a U-turn by Tuesday evening and decided to allow Mr Maria to continue with the investigation in the Sheena Bora murder case.

Additional chief secretary for home K.P. Bakshi, confirming this to this newspaper, said,  “It was a routine transfer and has nothing to do with the case. Despite this the media created a perception that he (Mr Maria) was transferred owing to the Sheena Bora case. Thus, going a step further, the government has decided to allow him to continue the investigation to its logical end.”

According to highly placed sources, the Maharashtra Chief Minister was upset with Mr Maria’s “over-enthusiasm” while conducting interrogations in the case.

“The CM was already unhappy with Mr Maria over his meeting ex-IPL commissioner Lalit Modi in London. Two clarifications were sought from Mr Maria and Mr Fadnavis was not satisfied even with the second clarification,” the sources said.

Again, in the Sheena Bora murder case, instead of monitoring, he (Mr Maria) used to go to Khar police station daily and personally interrogate the accused, which was very unusual. A top police officer was never found involved in any interrogation like this, the sources said. Finally the CM took note and asked him to give importance to all cases of serious crime instead of any one, the sources added.

While the NCP has alleged that Mr Maria was ousted due to a money-laundering angle and that a senior BJP leader from Delhi could have been in trouble, party spokesperson Nawab Malik claimed the Sheena Bora murder case was also related to money-laundering.

“INX Media, a firm owned by Peter Mukerjea and Indrani Mukerjea, has received investments from many foreign countries. From Singapore alone the company has got '500 crore. Only three days ago Rakesh Maria had said that he was probing a financial link and today he is abruptly transferred, which raises doubts,” Mr Malik told.

He also urged that the money-laundering angle in the case be probed. Mr Maria’s appointment as Mumbai CP had also not been free of controversy.

Meanwhile, Sanjeev Khanna, the stepfather of Sheena Bora and a key accused in the  murder case, was on Tuesday remanded in judicial custody till September 21.

Khanna, who was produced in the Bandra Metropolitan Magistrate court here, earlier in the day filed an application before a court saying that he is in illegal detention as instead of being produced on Monday, he was taken to Kolkata.