Bengaluru: With the Madikeri Town police registering a First Information Report (FIR) under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code against former home minister K.J. George and senior IPS officers – ADGP (Intelligence) A.M. Prasad and IGP (Lokayukta) Pronab Mohanty – for abetting the suicide of late DySP M.K. Ganapati suicide, there is confusion on who will investigate the case since there is no provision in law for parallel investigation by two agencies in the same case. As per the court order, the Police Sub Inspector, Madikeri Town police station, Mr Bharath, has registered the FIR and started the investigation.
The government had handed the investigation into the unnatural death report (UDR) case of the DySP to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) a day after the officer committed suicide in a private lodge in Madikeri on July 7. “Though it has not been made official, the court order will override the government order. If required, the investigating officer will seek assistance from the CID,” said an officer on condition of anonymity. According to sources, the police are likely to submit the report to the JMFC Court by the first week of August.
Honest officials an endangered species
“Six transfers in four months and these four months went by without a pay for unearthing '2,000-crore advertisement scam in BBMP. And finally when the KAS officer got a new posting, he realised that there is already an officer serving his post in a remote place in North Karnataka. If this is not harassment, then what is?” asks a BBMP official.
The recent death of DySP Ganapati has opened a can of worms in other government agencies, where honest officials are paying a price for unwilling to take the corrupt ‘babus’ route. Untimely transfers, posting to low profile jobs, delay in promotions and being denied certain high profile posts are the price these officials have to pay is they try to go against the system.
A former KAS officer, who was shunted out for taking on some corporators, said, “There’s no protection for honest officers, irrespective of the government department or agency. The problems are not specific to one policeman like Ganapati or officers like Subodh Yadav in BBMP, who was transferred without a reason. No matter how capable, an officer cannot fight against the government and even if he does, he will not survive. Our jobs look fancy to the outer world, but who’s listening to our problems?”
“Let’s consider the case of senior KAS officer K Mathai. The officer gave eight reports and estimated that the BBMP could be losing nearly '5,000 crore due to illegal advertisements. Based on his report, an inquiry was initiated into the case. Yet, the officer was shown the door. If this is the ‘reward’ officials get, what motivates them to work for people and society?” he wondered.
Shockingly, an IAS officer, on condition of anonymity, revealed that some posts are sold out even before capable officers can make it to the list. The officer said that often such postings come through the reference of ministers.
“Important posts are sold in crores and the higher rank officials are people personally chosen by the ministers. It’s a win-win situation for both and those in the lower hierarchy pay the price, when they try to go against this system.
