Will increase minimum tenure for cops to 2 years: Ramalinga Reddy

Belagavi: Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy on Saturday said that his government is keen on increasing the minimum tenure of police officers from one to two years in accordance with a Supreme Court order.

After holding a meeting with police officers here, he said that the decision to extend the tenure will help overcome political interference in the police department. “The department will take up transfers, postings etc., of police officers through the Police Establishment Board without giving way for political interference,” he said and added categorically that the department will handle all its affairs without any political interference.

The department will also come up with an amendment to the existing laws to ensure a healthy change in the department, he said.

On the ongoing investigation into journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh's murder, he denied that the investigators are revealing sensitive information related to the case and said that at least 100 police officers are involved in the investigation. “All our officers, who are tracing the killers, are on the right path and are making all attempts to solve the case at the earliest. I don’t want to disclose more on the ongoing investigation, but I am confident that the case will be handled effectively by the Special Investigation Team (SIT),'' he said.

“Many opined that Gauri would not have been killed had the killers of rationalist M.M. Kalburgi been caught. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah constituted the SIT to launch an effective probe to trace the killers,” he said.

He termed as baseless the allegations of opposition leader in the Assembly Jagadish Shettar that the state government managed raids on IT officials through the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to counter the raids conducted on Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar. He defended the ACB raids, saying there was no political interference. The ACB is doing its job and so is the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), he said. He did not respond allegations of Upa Lokayukta Justice Subhash Adi that the ACB was created to curb the powers of the Lokayukta.