Bureaucracy And Reflections In The Mirror !

 BY R.K.MISRA

 Ominous clouds seem to be hovering over the bureaucracy in Gujarat with a former  district collector in judicial custody, a second under suspension, an additional collector arrested and the Gujarat High Court directing action against  a serving IPS officer for not registering an FIR in the case involving the death of a police driver even while  the cops are under notice in two other cases of public flogging.

Even as Gujarat  government  last month reinstated  senior IAS officer, Gaurav Dahiya who was suspended  in 2019 after facing allegations of bigamy and cheating levelled by a Delhi woman, this month it was the turn of Anand district Collector D.S.Gadhvi to face suspension. On August 9, the state government ordered Gadhvi’s suspension  “ for serious charges of misconduct and moral turpitude”. A 5-membr panel of women officers, headed by Sunaina Tomar, Additional Chief Secretary, department of Social Justice and Empowerment will probe the matter and submit its report  to the state government within a month.

The action  against the 2008 batch IAS officer  who was promoted from the state sub-ordinate services was initiated after a purported video  showing him in an intimate position with a woman in his office began doing the rounds of the social media circuit. Apparently a spy cam had been planted in the office of the district collector.

Deviancy from acceptable norms of  administrative conduct do not take place overnight. Ironically the same administration which had  so far failed to track down these departures, moved with lightning speed at the highest level to track down the culprits behind the spy-cam. The  Anti-Terrorist Squad(ATS) was ordered into the investigation and a Resident Additional Collector(RAC) Ketaki Vyas and two others  have been arrested for honey-trapping Gadhvi and blackmailing him with objectionable clips for clearing contentious files, additional charges for disappearance of evidence and human trafficking have also been invoked. There are much larger issues involved viz-a-viz the conduct of the bureaucracy, the inversion of priorities and the induction of the ATS but more about that later.

Sunaina Tomar, who was then principal secretary  was also tasked with the inquiry into Dahiya’s case when a Delhi-based woman claimed  that he had married her in February 2018 while keeping her in the dark about his first marriage and wife. Dahiya had denied the allegation claiming that the woman had “honey trapped” him and was blackmailing him. After four years under suspension Dahiya has  now been reinstated. He has been appointed additional development commissioner.

Meanwhile Gadhvi is now the second officer  holding the district collector’s post to come under a cloud. Last month S.K.Langa who was the district collector in the state capital of Gandhinagar from April 2018 to September 2019 was arrested from Abu in Rajasthan and remanded to police custody in connection with land scams. The officer is presently in judicial custody.

The police claimed to have unearthed documentary evidence pertaining to the land scams that took place during his tenure and led to substantial financial loss to the state  exchequer. Langa had initially challenged the sessions court decision to  place him in custody on charges of corruption, and alleged criminal misconduct as a public servant but withdrew it  after the High Court showed inclination to reject it. Langa’s counsel contended  that as a district collector, he had made nearly 4000 decisions using his quasi-judicial powers, some of these decisions may be incorrect   but should not be deemed as illegal since the orders remained unchallenged.

On August 14, the five month long ordeal of a policeman’s family for justice came to an end  when a FIR was registered against a deputy superintendent  of police  and a sub-inspector for assault and abetting the suicide of a police van driver. Caught in the cross-hair of the Gujarat High Court’s scrutiny into the case is an IPS officer Ravi Teja, the present superintendent of police of Gandhinagar. Then posted in Junagadh , Teja was summoned by the Court and hauled over the coals for not registering an offence. The High Court has directed the state home secretary to take action against the officer for his negligence. The body of police van driver Brajesh Lavadiya posted to the Police Training School(PTC) at Junagadh was found hanging from a tree in an apparent case of suicide. After inaction by the cops the matter came to the High Court with deceased policeman’s  son claiming foul play and that his father had been beaten to death by   police officers. After the court’s stern stance, a case was registered .

The cops  are already facing the music  in two other cases.The High Court on July 12 ordered an inquiry by the chief judicial magistrate(CJM) of kheda district into an October  2022 incident  where some  members of the muslim community, arrested for stone pelting at a garba event were  allegedly flogged by the police in public. A plea for charging the cops with contempt of court had come up before it.

Similarly on July 25, the High Court issued  notices to 32 police officers and men in a contempt proceeding against them pertaining to public flogging of muslims in Junagadh town the previous month.

Clearly all is not well. The bureaucracy could do with a  closer look at their own reflection. 

This syndicated news column was published in the respective newspapers edition dated  August 29,2023 whose links are given below.

http://epaper.lokmat.com/articlepage.php?articleid=LOKTIME_NPLT_20230829_6_3

http://odishapostepaper.com/edition/4622/orissapost/page/9