BOMBAY, 8 May 2006 — In a major reshuffle, the Maharashtra government yesterday transferred more than 600 police officers. The director general of police, Pavender Singh Pasricha, signed the transfer orders on Saturday night after approval from the home department of the state government.
Although the government said the transfers were routine, senior police officers said they were a fallout of a recent Bombay High Court judgment that reversed a government order banning dance bars in the metropolis. The court also passed strictures against the government.
The officers said Home Minister R.R. Patil held the police officers responsible for encouraging the dance bars in areas under their jurisdiction after taking hefty bribes. Patil shunted out a majority of the officers from Bombay and Pune to such places as Nagpur, Amravati, Sholapur, Sindhudurg and Raigad and to CID intelligence, CID crime and anti-corruption departments.
Surprisingly, the government also transferred a top police officer involved in the investigation of a multimillion-rupee scam in the Maharashtra Public Service Commission. This was in violation of a Supreme Court directive against the transfer of investigating officer Sudhakar Poojari until investigation into the scam was complete.
