LUCKNOW: Senior IPS officer Shailja Kant Mishra opted for voluntary retirement as soon as the Samajwadi Party Government shifted him from his present post to an insignificant one on Monday.
Mishra headed a committee during the regime of the previous BSP Government to probe into the allegedly scandalous police recruitment during Mulayam Singh Yadav’s government from 2003-07. The Mishra Committee had found that the recruitment of over 18,000 police constables was ‘contaminated’ and submitted its report to the Mayawati Government, which had cancelled the appointments and indicted the officers responsible for the selection. Later, when the constables challenged the matter in the courts they were reinstated. The court decision provided an opportunity to the Samajwadi Party, then in the Opposition, to claim that the investigations by the Mishra Committee were politically motivated to tarnish the image of former Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.
When Mishra was the chairman of the Committee he made a nasty remark that the female recruits were ‘physically exploited’ by some leaders of the Samajwadi Party before they were selected.
This statement rattled the SP leadership, which threatened the officer to either prove his allegation or face action.