BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court nominated Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Law & Order, R Hitendra, to head the Special Investigation Team (SIT) reconstituted to further investigate the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) recruitment scam.
Picking Hitendra’s name from among four ADGP-rank officers suggested by the State government, instead of DGP Alok Kumar, the high court also replaced IPS officer Divya V Gopinath with ADGP (Administration) Soumendu Mukherjee as a member of the SIT. The three other IPS officers -- Anup A Shetty, Kushal Chouksey and Kshama Mishra -- nominated by the court on September 21, remain undisturbed.
Justice M Nagaprasanna passed the order on Monday for substitution of two officers in petitions filed by Basanagounda R Patil and others. Two crimes were registered over alleged irregularities in the KPSC recruitment, one of which was entrusted to CID and the other was with Vidhana Soudha police.
The court said the reconstituted SIT must commence investigation that inspires confidence and credibility, and remain uninfluenced. Stating that it is equally imperative to ensure that investigation is insulated from the shadow of its predecessor, the CID, the court said none of the officers who were associated with the earlier investigation by the CID, irrespective of rank, designation or capacity in which they participated, shall be inducted into the SIT as its assisting team.
The SIT shall have the liberty to select such officers and supporting personnel as it considers necessary, subject to the condition that none of them have any association with the earlier CID probe. The separation must be complete both in letter and spirit, the court added.
“The state government shall extend its fullest cooperation to the SIT and make available all necessary infrastructure, personnel, logistical assistance, technical facilities and other resources as may be requisitioned by the SIT for effective and expeditious completion of the investigation,” the court ordered.
The SIT officers shall not be transferred out of Bengaluru from their present assignment, the court said. Both the SIT and Directorate of Enforcement (ED), which registered the complaint, shall proceed simultaneously and independently in their respective statutory spheres with due coordination and mutual cooperation, the court added. The ED shall continue to place before court progress of the investigation from time to time, it said.