New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir cadre IPS officer Basant Rath has been suspended for alleged instances of “gross misconduct and misbehaviour” with immediate effect, says a Union Home Ministry order.
The order, issued on Tuesday evening, said the 2000-batch IPS officer was immediately attached to police headquarters in Srinagar.
The suspension order comes a fortnight after Rath sent J&K Police a written complaint against the UT’s top cop DGP Dilbag Singh, over an alleged threat Singh made to his life.
Social media posts by the IPS officer insinuating wrongdoing by Singh, had been reported earlier as well.
Indian Express had reported that Rath had addressed to the SHO of Gandhi Nagar Police Station in Jammu district and urged the officer to “take note of my apprehensions about my life, liberty and bald head”.
The report added further details on Rath’s complaint:
Making clear that that he is doing this “as a private citizen” — in his “personal capacity”, and not as a civil servant or a policeman — Rath wrote, “I am not asking you to lodge an FIR against the person mentioned. I am just asking you to make this letter a part of the daily diary in your police station. Today. Now.”
He wrote, “In case something bad happens to me, you should know whose number you should dial…”
Rath, posted as inspector general (IG), civil defence, in the Union Territory, has been asked not to leave the headquarters without permission from the director general of Jammu and Kashmir Police.
The order stated that disciplinary proceedings against Rath are contemplated in connection with “repeated instances of gross misconduct and misbehaviour that have been brought to the notice of the government.”
He has been place under suspension with immediate effect, it said.
In 2018, the Union home ministry had sought disciplinary action against Rath for his columns in national media, especially on The Wire and the Indian Express.
Also read: Home Ministry, IB Target Kashmir’s ‘Singham’ for ‘Seditious’ Writings in Media
Rath, once promoted to the rank of Inspector General by the Jammu and Kashmir government and put in charge of traffic had gained a following and was labelled “Singham” – after the iconic no-nonsense cinema cop – for his tough approach to traffic violators.
The MHA had then accused Rath of violating the All India Service Rules and has urged the then Mehbooba Mufti government to take “action” against him. The home ministry had initially ordered a “discreet inquiry” by the Intelligence Bureau against Rath in 2016-17 as it had found some of his articles to be supposedly in violation of the service rules.
(With agency inputs)