BENGALURU: Expressing displeasure over the unilateral decision of the state government in the transfer of police officers from the Lokayukta and new postings, the anti-corruption body has asked the state government to follow the “procedure of consultation”.
Earlier, the state government had to consult the Lokayukta institution before posting new police officers as it had to check their credentials.
The state government is also supposed to consult the anti-corruption body before the transfer of any police officer as per the provisions of the Karnataka Lokayukta Act.
However, this norm was not followed after the resignation of Justice Y Bhaskar Rao as Lokayukta after his son was accused of being involved in extortion.
In the absence of Lokayukta, the senior Upa Lokayukta is the incharge of the institution. But the state government is neither consulting the Upa Lokayukta nor the Registrar of Lokayukta.
Recently, it transferred 15 police inspectors without giving the institution any substitutes. Before transferring police officials, the state government did not consult the Lokayukta.
So the Lokayukta did not relieve the transferred police officials as it would hamper the ongoing investigations into pending cases.
The state then posted 14 new police inspectors as against the transfer of 15 police inspectors recently. This was also not done in consultation with the Lokayukta institution.
“If we allow the state to do transfers or postings of police officers on its own, it may spoil the image of the anti-corruption body if any officer without a clean record is posted. There are so many sensitive cases in the institution. Therefore, the state government should consult the Lokayukta and give a list of names proposed to be posted here before approving the transfer order. Then we can check their track record and get postings of clean officers to serve the purpose of Lokayukta,” an official in the Lokayukta told Express.
Against this background, the office of the Registrar has written to the state government recently to give the list of names of officers to be posted to Lokayukta before their transfers into the institution, an official said.