BENGALURU: There is a saying in the Indian Police Service (IPS), “If you are 97 per cent honest, you can still survive, but an officer who is 100 per cent honest, will never see the peace of mind.” A senior police officer used this to describe IPS officer Madhukar Shetty, who died at a hospital in Hyderabad on Friday. The officer, who rarely saw a stable posting, is fondly remembered by many seniors.
“When I see politicians pouring out condolence messages and praising Madhukar Shetty’s honesty, I feel like laughing out loud. Many senior officers made sure that he was shunted from one post to another,” a retired senior police officer said.
Retired DGP RK Dutta and IPS officer Madhukar Shetty, in 2009, had made the lives of several corrupt leaders uncomfortable. He was responsible for the arrest of MLA Sampangi, and then submitted a report on illegal mining that eventually forced the then CM B S Yeddyurappa to resign from office.
Speaking about this, Dutta said, “There were many influential people who were arrested during his tenure. He always believed in correcting the system.” Shetty, reportedly, also wanted to devise a course on ‘anti-corruption’ for the force.
“He believed that there was no place for corruption within an institution like Lokayukta. But when his beliefs were challenged, he submitted a report on his own department and left the country to do his PhD. He would often ask - ‘Why are we punishing the victims and not the accused?’,” another officer said.
Recollecting an incident, a senior police officer who worked with him at Lokayukta said, “Once, there was a constable who was caught accepting a bribe of around Rs 2,000.
Shetty always met the accused after to know their reasons. When he was talking to the said constable, the latter’s phone kept ringing. Shetty saw that it was his wife on the phone and answered the call and put it on speaker mode. Shetty was moved with that call. His wife, in a complaining tone, said, “We’ve crossed the deadline to pay our child’s school fee, and you haven’t been home in two days. Tomorrow, our son will be asked to stand outside. What should I tell him?’ she asked. The officer promptly gave them money for fees from his own pocket, and only revealed to the wife what her husband had done after the fee was paid.
While many say that Shetty himself was not interested in high profile postings, an officer revealed, “Siddaramaiah, and even Kumaraswamy, wanted him to give him higher postings in the city, but Shetty was not interested. The reasons, for him, may have been due to compromising on truth and being prepared to ‘listen’ and ‘cooperate’ with all.”
Colleagues, friends pay respects
The mortal remains of IPS officer Madhukar Shetty, who died in Hyderabad on Friday, arrived from the Telangana capital to Bengaluru on Saturday afternoon. The body was kept at Yelahanka Armed Police Training School to allow officers of the Karnataka police to pay their respects. Many senior officials, his colleagues, and friends, including DGP Neelamani Raju, were in attendance. Home Minister MB Patil was also present. Interestingly, the minister tried making ‘zero traffic’ arrangements after paying his respects to the officer but soon realised that this would cause inconvenience to the public and directed his officials accordingly.