Karnataka for Prez Medal to ‘stamped’ officer

The Karnataka government has recommended an IPS officer for the prestigious President’s Medal despite his being under a cloud in the multi-crore stamp paper scam. Superintendent of Police, Karnataka State Reserve Police I Battalion U. Nissar Ahmed has already been questioned at length by StampIT once and is likely to be interrogated again. It was after StampIT started probing the senior officers in the scam that the government removed Nissar from his post in Bangalore and shifted him to the KSRP. The 1993 batch IPS officer was supervisory officer when the stamp paper racket hit the headlines. In November 2001, when prime accused Abdul Karim Telgi was arrested from Ajmer, Nissar, who was DCP West, and some of his men, including an ACP, had been conferred cash awards.

Nissar’s name was recommended for the Medal by State Director General and IGP T. Madiyal a few months ago. ‘‘They should have made a substantial contribution to earn it. There is a Central Government committee which peruses the recommendations. The committee decides after going through the Annual Confidential Records and merit of every officer. The names are sent to the IB for verification of the claims,’’ sources said. The Bureau, last week, wrote to the committee. Sources said the report does not favour the officer as he is under the StampIT scanner. Incidentally, when Nissar was DCP West, Madiyal was Bangalore Police Commissioner.