Bangalore: Cop Indicted by Lokayukta Appointed its DIG!

Bangalore, Nov 14 (Bangalore Mirror): A year ago, former Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde had recommended disciplinary action against IPS officer Arun Chakravarthi for downplaying a dowry death case when he was Shimoga SP in 2008. Strangely, instead of taking action against the officer, the administration has posted him as DIG in an institution which is meant to safeguard probity in public life.

Justice Hegde, as well as the officer who was tasked with the probe against Chakravarthi, are understandably dismayed. They have called his transfer to the Lokayukta police wing “improper” and an attempt to help the accused in high-profile corruption cases.

“I agree it is improper. Unfortunately, I don’t have a say in the postings made to the Lokayukta. Yes, it is true that I investigated a case against him (Chakravarthi) after then Lokayukta Justice Hegde directed me to do so. Following the inquiry, I recommended disciplinary action against the official and others from Shimoga district. The recommendation has been sent to the government. I do not know what happened after that. Beyond this, I don’t have anything to say,” M D Singh, a retired DGP who is director (special investigations) in the Lokayukta, told Bangalore Mirror.

Justice Hegde was even more forthright. “It is unfortunate. It appears there is an attempt to destroy the Lokayukta by posting tainted officials to its police wing,” he said. “The institution is already headless and losing its sheen. By transferring officials within two months of posting them to the Lokayukta (a reference to ADGP Jeevan Kumar B Gaonkar’s premature transfer), the government is not sending the right message. It smacks of an attempt in collusion with officials to undermine corruption cases against the high and mighty,” he said.

“I had recommended action against Arun Chakravarthi after MD Singh submitted his report. I have nothing against him or anybody. All I want is that the government should post officials with a clean record to such an institution. I condemn premature transfers in the Lokayukta,” Justice Hegde said.
 

Father was Frustrated

The case against Chakravarthi pertains to 2008, when a newly-married girl, Shubhada, died under mysterious circumstances in the bathroom of her husband’s house in Shimoga’s Doddapete. The jurisdictional police registered a case of unnatural death and conducted an inquest. A post-mortem was carried out, but the report was delayed for want of some inputs.

Meanwhile, Shubhada’s father approached the Doddapete sub-inspector and voiced his suspicions about the involvement of his daughter’s in-laws, especially his son-in-law Ravi Kumar, in her death. He urged the SI to register a case of murder against them.

The SI cold-shouldered Shubhada’s father. The latter approached, in turn, the jurisdictional inspector and the DySP but was rebuffed by both. Frustrated, he knocked at the door of Shimoga SP Chakravarthi. But instead of directing his subordinate officers to register a murder case, the SP forwarded the father’s petition to the DySP, from whom it went back to the same inspector and SI.

Angered by this official apathy, Shubhada’s father met then Lokayukta Justice Hegde, who ordered an inquiry into the inaction of the Shimoga police by retired DGP and Lokayukta director (special investigations) MD Singh.

After meeting Singh and explaining his daughter’s case, Shubhada’s father returned to Shimoga. Around that time, the government transferred Chakravarthi from Shimoga and posted S Murugan as SP there. Shubhada’s father approached Murugan and the latter, pending the Lokayukta inquiry, got a murder case registered against the accused and transferred the case to the CID.

Meanwhile, Singh submitted his inquiry report to Justice Hegde, stating that it was a grave mistake on the part of the police officers, from SI to SP, in not registering a murder case. He recommended disciplinary action against all the officers concerned.

Along with MD Singh’s report, Justice Hegde forwarded a note to the state government recommending a departmental inquiry and disciplinary action against the officers under section 12(3) of the Karnataka Lokayukta Act.

Thereupon, departmental action was taken against the DySP and the subordinate officers concerned by stopping their increments. But no action was taken against the SP as the power to order an inquiry against an IPS officer lies with the state government and the chief minister.

Ironically, Chakravarthi has now been posted to the very institution which recommended punitive action against him.