EC asks Gujarat govt for list of IPS officers it shunted out post-Godhra

The commission is also learnt to have taken a serious view of the state government having dumped the few Muslim IPS officers into inconsequential posts, sources said.

While postponing the elections on August 16, the commission had, in its 40-page order, directed the State Government to ensure that police officers who performed their duties fearlessly to contain the riots were restored to their original postings. The order said that a common complaint received was that the officers were punished for their impartiality.

Despite the commission’s directive over two months ago, the government has not yet restored these police officers to their original postings.

Following these transfers, DGP A K Chakravarthy had shot off a letter to ACS (Home) Ashok Narayan, expressing his reservations and stating these would demoralise the police force.

In an order on March 24, the government had transferred as many as 27 IPS officers, including Rahul Sharma, SP of Bhavnagar; Vivek Srivastav, SP of Kutch; Himanshu Bhatt, SP of Banaskantha; and M D Antani, SP of Bharuch.

While Srivastav had arrested a Home Guards commandant having VHP links, Sharma had thwarted an attempt by a mob to attack a madarasa, and Bhatt had suspended a sub-inspector for not taking action against a mob that had gone about torching shops and houses.

Meanwhile, the State Government today transferred 60 police inspectors and 360 sub-inspectors.

According to sources in police headquarters, 12 inspectors and 30 sub-inspectors are from Ahmedabad. One of them is an inspector involved in the October 22 police encounter which left Samirkhan Pathan dead.