MHA wants action against Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, writes to West Bengal government

Union Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday shot off a letter to West Bengal, asking the state government to initiate disciplinary action against Kolkata Commissioner Rajeev Kumar for "indiscipline and violation of service rules."

As per well-placed sources, the MHA, which is the cadre controlling authority for Indian Police Service (IPS) officers in the country, in the letter to West Bengal Chief Secretary Malay Kumar De, has cited "indiscipline behaviour and violation of All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968/AIS (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969" as a reason for initiating action against the officer.

The face-off between West Bengal and the Centre, which looks all set to snowball into a major political issue, brings back into focus the Centre-state relations and rights, which have always been a debatable issue.

 

The letter also cites that as per the information received by the MHA, Rajeev Kumar sat on a "dharna" along with some police officers with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the Metro Channel in Kolkata, which is "prima facie in contravention of the extant provisions of AIS (Conduct) Rules, 1968/AIS (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969."

The MHA communication also outlined the ex provision of the Rules 3(1), 5(1) and 7 of the AIS (Conduct) Rules, 1968 which were allegedly flouted by Rajeev Kumar, a 1989 batch IPS of West Bengal cadre, who was to be questioned by a CBI team on Sunday night which led to a full-blown confrontation between the police and the CBI.

Since Sunday night, West Bengal Chief Minister Banerjee along with her party leaders has been sitting on a 'Save the democracy dharna" in the state capital, alleging the abuse of central agencies like the CBI by the Centre to destabililise the state and its government. Since then, most of the opposition leaders have joined the 'dharna' and aired their concerns over the alleged growing abuse of central agencies against opponents by the current dispensation at the Centre.