RAIPUR: In a significant move, the Congress government in Chhattisgarh has set up a five-member committee to investigate into the suicide of an IPS officer in 2012.
The panel of five IPS officers been constituted seven years after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that probed the incident, had suspecting no foul play submitted its closure report.
According to the order issued by the state home department, the panel to be headed by the Director General (Jail) Sanjay Pillay will extensively probe into the pertinent points cited from Para 6-17 in the ‘self contained note’ furnished by the CBI after having investigated the suicide of Rahul Sharma, who was then Bilaspur superintendent of police.
The other members of the panel included Deepanshu Kabra (IGP-Bilaspur range), Ratan Lal Dangi (IGP-Sarguja Range), Prashant Agrawal (SP-Bilaspur) and Archana Jha (SP).
A 2002-batch IPS officer Rahul Sharma shot himself to death with his service revolver in the police officers’ mess at Bilaspur on 12 March 2012, leaving a suicide note written in English. His family had then alleged that he was "a victim of the system".
The Raman Singh government then had recommended a CBI probe into the incident.
An RTI activist Narayan Sharma had in October this year written to the state director general of police seeking a thorough probe by special investigation team into the suicide of the IPS officer.
“Neither the CBI nor the state police department could so far trace the offender or any strong evidence behind the suicide. Those responsible should be booked,” he stated.