Gajbhiye appeals to govt to drop charges
Bhubaneswar: Satish Gajbhiye, who has been facing three departmental proceedings since long, urged the state government to drop all charges against him and sought promotion retrospectively.
Gajbhiye, a 2002 batch IPS officer, is still a SP-ranked officer though he would have been promoted to the rank of inspector general (IG) by now. The government withheld his promotions after he was mired in a series of controversies post-2015. Currently, he is principal of Urban Police and Traffic Training Institute, Bhubaneswar.
The first proceeding against Gajbhiye was related to a law and order problem that had erupted in Kendrapada during his tenure as SP in August 2015. On August 13, 2015, the state government placed Gajbhiye under suspension in the wake of mob violence in Kendrapada. The mob had gathered outside spiritual leader Sarathi Baba’s ashram on August 7, 2015, demanding action against him for his alleged immoral acts. The mob went on the rampage in the ashram and set several police vehicles on fire. Gajbhiye was accused of failing to handle the mob. The second proceeding followed allegations that he and his wife allegedly grabbed government land in Gop block in Puri district. A vigilance inquiry was ordered into it.
The third proceeding involved non-submission of utilisation certificate (UC) to the tune of Rs 1.55 lakh of a government scheme while the police officer was serving as SP in Malkangiri in 2008.
Gajbhiye, in a recent letter to the chief secretary Asit Tripathy, said he was not responsible for the law and order situation in Kendrapada. “I was on leave at that time and immediately joined the duty to handle the law and order situation. Some media channels with vested interests depicted the police action as excesses and demanded action against me,” his letter said.
. The central administrative tribunal has already declared my suspension as illegal,” his letter said.
He said the proceeding related to the alleged land purchase in Gop was based on false charges. “My wife had purchased a small patch of barren land for Rs 4.5 lakh in 2012-13 and sold in June 2016 for Rs 6.1 lakh. Media highlighted that the property was worth crores of rupees and alleged that the adjoining land belonged to my wife. Later, the vigilance inquiry revealed that the adjoining land belonged to other people. The proceeding against me was inquired by IPS officer Sudhanshu Sarangi, who found no substance in the allegations against me,” his letter read.
“I request you to kindly consider my grievance on sympathetic grounds and withdraw all proceedings against me. The charges are not sustainable in the eyes of law,” he wrote.
On Wednesday, the state police headquarters forwarded Gajbhiye’s representation to the home department for consideration on merit at the government level.