Haryana cops have frequent run-ins with law

The list of such officers is unending. The state has a former DGP accused of molesting a minor girl. Another former DGP was caught red-handed accepting illegal gratification and yet another faces a trial in a fake encounter case. And now an IGP is on the run for his alleged involvement in the Shivani murder case.

Ironically, senior police officers have found themselves landing directly into the net laid either by other law-enforcing agencies or by the political class. Since they allow themselves to be used politically, there is no end to cases in which they have been accused of operating with political motives under instructions of their masters.

While Ravi Kant Sharma is in news currently, not very long ago, former DGP, S.P.S. Rathore hit the headlines for allegedly molesting Ruchika Girhotra, 14. He is currently facing trial under Section 354 in a special CBI court at Ambala. It took Madhu Prakash, complainant against Rathore and mother of Ruchika’s friend Reemu, a decade to bring Rathore to the book.

Another IPS officer, Harish Kumar, landed in a soup after Excise and Customs Department sleuths raided his premises. He has been sending his medical certificates for the last many months. The government has now constituted a Medical Board to check the veracity of his certificates.

An IAS officer Sanjeev Kumar has not been reporting for his duty for the past many months. The government recently suspended and chargesheeted him. Sanjeev Kumar is facing a couple of vigilance inquiries pertaining to corruption. Presently special secretary, Health, N.K. Jain, was arrested and jailed after the CBI booked him for alleged corrupt practices during his stay on deputation to the Chandigarh administration as home secretary.

The incident of a former DGP, late Ramesh Sehgal, accepting a bribe to extend a convict’s parole and being sent to Ambala Central Jail, is still fresh in people’s memory.

The same man again again hogged media attention when his colleague, IPS officer V.N. Rai, accused him of large-scale bungling in police recruitment. It was alleged that Sehgal was minting money from the recruitment process through middlemen.

In the sensational Jitendra Pehal case, former DGP Lachhman Das was not only arrested by CBI after his retirement but also sent to jail. After he alleged vendetta at Ambala Central Jail, he was shifted to Patiala jail. He was arrested following a CBI probe into the case ordered by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on a petition filed by Pehal’s mother. She had alleged that her son had been murdered in a fake encounter. The case also saw another IPS Ved Prakash Verma behind the bars.

Then two IPS officer posted at Hisar and one inspector were jailed in a case pertaining to Anoop Bishnoi, son-in-law of Bhajan Lal, the newly-appointed Haryana Congress chief, who was running a dispute with a Kolkata firm. Anil Dawra, the then SP, Hisar, was jailed for misleading the court in this case. Afterwards another IPS officer Sham Lal Goyal too was sent to jail in the case by the Supreme Court.

One IPS officer, accused of filing a false affidavit in one case, had to spend about a year in jail. M.S. Ahlawat, during his posting in the Railways, was later reinstated by the court after he completed his sentence. This is apart from the numerous cases where junior-rank officers have been jailed.