MUMBAI'S KHAKI WARS

MAHARASHTRA CADRE IPS OFFICERS ARE PITTED AGAINST EACH OTHER IN A POLITICAL SLUGFEST BETWEEN STATE AND THE UNION GOVERNMENT IN INDIA’S FINANCIAL CAPITAL. THE POLICE-POLITICAL WAR IS UNLIKE ANY SEEN IN THE PAST

- Kiran D. Tare

On September 27, when Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray learned that the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) had issued summons to two of his top officials—chief secretary Sitaram Kunte and acting DGP (director general of police) Sanjay Pandey—in connection with a case filed against former home minister Anil Deshmukh, Thackeray’s response, sources say, was, “Give them a befitting reply.” The reply arrived in two parts. First, Kunte and Pandey refused to honour the three summons, which asked them to appear on September 29, October 2 and October 11, apparently because it departed from protocol in which senior officers under inquiry are questioned in their own offices. They asked the CBI to send its investigators to their offices instead; the central agency chose to email them its questions.

The second part appeared on September 29, when the Maharashtra government revitalised a dormant case involving CBI director Subodh Jaiswal’s probe of the 2003 counterfeit stamp-paper scam. Jaiswal, who was heading the special investigation team tasked with probing the case in 1997, was castigated by a Pune court for conducting a ‘shoddy investigation’. In 2007, Jaiswal had approached the Bombay High Court to have his record cleared, but the case had gone into cold storage. On September 29, the Maharashtra government filed a motion asking the HC to expedite the hearing of Jaiswal’s petition. Whether it clears Jaiswal or not, the public rehashing of the incident will have consequences for his reputation.