LUCKNOW, July 14: In a serious setback, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has been forced to revoke the suspension of an Indian Police Service (IPS) official following widespread resentment among the cadre.This is bound to have repercussions on her much publicised witch-hunting of IAS and IPS officials. A fortnight after suspending former Etawah SSP Abhay Shankar, Mayawati had to unconditionally withdraw her charges against him on Saturday.The Chief Minister had suspended Abhay, now posted as Superintendent of Police in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Crime Branch, at her recent divisional meeting after finding him ``guilty'' during his previous tenure as SSP, Etawah. She had announced this ``punishment'' at a press conference in Kanpur last month.The manner in which this 1969 batch official was suspended evoked a sharp reaction from the IPS cadre. State police chief Sriram Arun was pressurised to intervene in the matter. Subsequently, he played a key role in the withdrawal of charges against Abhay. The former SSP has now been asked to take up the same post from which he was suspended at the CID CB headquarters in Lucknow. Mayawati had accused Abhay of having failed to contain crime in the district, which is incidentally the native place of Union Defence Minister and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. The Chief Minister had also charged Abhay for not having invoked the National Security Act and other repressive measures on ``criminals'' in the area.Police sources alleged that Abhay had incurred Mayawati's wrath for refusing to persecute innocent Samajwadi Party workers in the district. He is said to have angered her further when he reported that there was no case pending against Mulayam's younger brother, Shiv Pal. The former Etawah SSP had reported that all the cases against Pal had either been committed to trial or a final report had been filed for want of evidence or witnesses.According to officials, Etawah saw a spurt in criminal activities after Abhay's removal. However, the State Home Ministry reportedly did not react and no action has been taken against the present incumbent so far.This is probably the first instance when an officer has been reinstated at the same post within a fortnight of being suspended, that too by the same Chief Minister. In 1992, another official, Prakash Singh, was reinstated as the Director General of Police by then Governor B Satyanarayan Reddy, within a few months of being shunted out by then Chief Minister Kalyan Singh.
