BANGALORE: In a major setback to the Director General & Inspector General of Police (DG & IGP) of the state Shankar M Bidari, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has quashed his appointment as the state top cop. Further, it has directed the state government to appoint DGP of Fire and Emergency Services A R Infant the ad-hoc DG & IGP.
The CAT Divisional Bench comprising Judicial Officer Dr Suresh and Member Leela Mehandale, on Friday, passed the order. It stated the appointment of Bidari as the DG & IGP was null and void as the state government had kept the UPSC empanelment committee in dark about the allegations against him while he was the chief of the Special Task Force (STF) formed to tackle Veerappan.
“The National Human Rights Commission in its report had mentioned human rights of innocent villagers were snatched in the name of operation against Veerappan. In the report submitted to the UPSC empanelment committee, the state government has not mentioned allegations against Bidari,” the order stated.The divisional bench chose Infant as ad-hoc DG & IGP till the process of appointing a regular DG & IGP ends. Infant told Express, “I take it as a victory for the IPS cadre.” Bidari was unavailable for comment.