Rajasthan cadre IPS officer Pankaj Choudhary was demoted by the state Department of Personnel for three years following an inquiry related to the case pertaining to his second marriage which was allegedly solemnised without ending the first. In March 2019, Choudhary, a 2009 batch IPS officer, was dismissed from service for “grave personal misconduct” following the same accusations. However, he was reinstated in May 2021 by the Ministry of Home Affairs after favourable orders from the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court. According to the order issued last week by the Department of Personnel, Choudhary has been demoted from Senior Pay Scale (Level 11 in Pay Matrix) to Junior Pay Scale (Level 10) for a period of three years beginning December 18, 2024. Choudhary is currently posted as Superintendent of Police, Community Policing, at the Police Headquarters in Jaipur. Talking to The Indian Express, Choudhary said: “The order is illegal and is contempt of the court. I will challenge the order.” He said that the CAT, the High Court and the Supreme Court have already ruled in his favour in the matter and said that due benefits should be given to him in a time bound manner. He also questioned the timing of the order which comes almost four years after the clean chit from the courts. Taking to X, Choudhary wrote, “The issue is not whether there was a promotion or a demotion. The issue is the deliberate contempt of the honourable courts' orders, which is unfortunate. This symptom and trend are harmful and sad for the state. It breaks trust in the system. Impartiality and justice are the foundation of peace. Satyameva Jayate - Jai Hind - Jai Bharat.” “Every war demands a price. This war is special, against organised corruption and opportunists. In this age of flattery and sycophancy, this war is for the betterment of future generations,” Choudhary said, adding that how can the “cunning, opportunistic species” scare someone with a demotion when that person has already faced dismissal from service. Choudhary has made headlines in the past too. In September last year, he had written an open letter and demanded that former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot be arrested “to bring the truth of paper leaks out,” while accusing the former CM of vendetta and “mysterious malice” towards him during his last two tenures as CM. In 2015, the IPS officer accused the then Vasundhara Raje government of targeting him – by removing him from his post – and said that he had refused to let rioters from the VHP and Bajrang Dal go free during riots in Bundi’s Nainwa and Khanpur in September 2014 despite “pressure from all levels of government”, and that he was told to “register false cases” against Muslims instead. Choudhary had made the allegations after he was served a chargesheet by the Rajasthan government which accused him of not acting in time to tackle the riots. He had also demanded the arrest of a fellow IPS officer over the alleged 2017 encounter of gangster Anandpal Singh. In 2013, he was transferred as Jaisalmer SP allegedly after opening the history sheet of Ghazi Fakeer - an influential Muslim leader - and lodging a case against his son Saleh Mohammad, then a sitting Congress MLA, while Gehlot was CM. Choudhary was reportedly transferred within 48 hours of the FIR.
