CHENNAI: In an unusual turn of events, an order issued by Director General of Police (Head of Police Force) Sandeep Rai Rathore, who was appointed to the post by the ECI on April 2, asking IPS officer Sandeep Mittal to hold full additional charge as Head of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) was overridden by a letter issued by Home Secretary K. Manivasan hours later.
Manivasan named A.T. Durai Kumar as Director (in-charge) of the investigative body.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) had appointed DGP Sandeep Rai Rathore as head of the Tamil Nadu police force, replacing G. Venkatraman, the in-charge DGP/Head of the Police Force (HoPF). The panel had also appointed Mittal as DGP (Armed Police and DVAC) in place of S. Davidson Devasirvatham on Thursday.
On Saturday, the ECI ordered the transfer of Tamil Nadu Home Secretary Dheeraj Kumar and appointed senior IAS officer K. Manivasan in his place. It also issued a modification order stating that Mittal would be DGP (Armed Police), implying that he would not be heading the DVAC.
Rathore’s order, which referred to the ECI’s orders regarding Mittal issued on Thursday and Saturday, directed him to assume charge as DGP (Armed Police) and requested him to hold full additional charge as DVAC chief until further orders.
The order asked Mittal to assume charge before 4.30 pm on Saturday and send a compliance report immediately.
Since such directions from the ECI regarding the transfer of IPS officers during the ongoing election process are usually given effect through orders of the Home Secretary and not the DGP (HoPF), Rathore’s order raised eyebrows in bureaucratic circles over procedural propriety.
Later on Saturday, Manivasan, who assumed charge as the new Home Secretary, issued a letter that had the effect of overriding Rathore’s order. Referring to the ECI’s order on Saturday, Manivasan’s letter stated that Durai Kumar, Inspector General of Police in the Special Investigation Cell-I of the DVAC, would be in charge of the post of DVAC head until further orders.
Earlier on Friday, DMK MP and treasurer TR Baalu, in a letter to the ECI, strongly objected to the transfer of N. Muruganandam from the post of Chief Secretary and raised concerns over Mittal’s appointment as DVAC head. He said the Supreme Court, through various judgments, had clarified that the ECI’s powers to transfer officials applied only to election-related posts and not to bodies like the DVAC, which he said had nothing to do with elections. Moreover, he alleged that Mittal is “well-known” as a “supporter” of the BJP and the RSS.
The DVAC head’s position has assumed importance, with the Enforcement Directorate approaching the Madras High Court to get an FIR filed by the DVAC against DMK Minister KN Nehru and a few others, based on the central agency’s alleged findings about a “cash-for-jobs” scam in recruitment in the Municipal Administration and Water Supply (MAWS) Department.