TV channels have reported that a case for extortion has been registered against the Dy. IG of Chapra for demanding protection money from a liquor trader. Earlier on Anusuyia Singh Rana was suspended for demanding bribe from alleged mining mafia.

There is a common thread running in both the cases. The officers acted against belong to the scheduled tribe and scheduled caste respectively.

The complainants are related to two trades which generally do not have a very savoury reputation – sand extraction and liquor trade. In both these trades all kinds of irregularities and mafia activities are common.

Now it cannot be anybody’s case that these are the only officers demanding bribe, there must be many more threatening other traders and common people. But it seems that the government is very sensitive to the complaint of liquor and sand mafia. These are not the only IPS  officers against whom complaint have been made ; the government itself had the matter of irregularity in the appointment of constables enquired into by some of the most reputed officers of Bihar including Mr. Abhayanand himself .the committee headed by Manoje Nath  which included DN Gautam and Abhayanad squarely indicted  the then DGP Ashish Ranjan Sinha and several SPs but the government  swept the report  under the carpet.

The committee headed but Anand Shankar which had Manoje Nath and  DN Gautam  as members   held at least  more than a dozen  IPS officers guilty 5 of them were Bhumihars , three belonged to intermediate classes and one of them was a Rajput and at least on   Kayasth . Several of the officers were promoted and allowed to retire peacefully while those still serving have been promoted.

It was learnt from news papers that the government had asked the CBI to enquire into it. Now the question that arises is why the government not acted upon the report of the tow committees. Was the enquiry not worthy of belief? In that case the enquiring officers should have been acted against. As expected the CBI refused to take it up. Now the government has sent it to vigilance. Meanwhile one of the officers KK Verma found guilty was posted as IG vigilance after he was found guilty of corruption himself. !

Arvind Pandey enquired and found large scale irregularities in the appointment of cooks and menials etc and sent a report to the government. He went and met the CM Nitish Kumar also and apprised him of it but nothing came out of it. Three of the senior most officers along with several IAS officers were found guilty of having   fraudulently drawn transport allowance  to the tune of lacs of rupees  and yet Krishna Chaudhary , AC Verma and PN Ray were let off and in fact  Krishna  Chowdhary and A C Verma were promoted  to the next higher rank. For an Additional DG to indulge in such petty corruption and deceitfulness warranted at least dismissal  but in police circles it is open secret that a very close confidant of the CM who hosts him occasionally was instrumental in  getting the matter hushed up .Abhayanand pursued the matter but nothing came out of it.

Similarly illegal purchase of k oil generators worth Rs 2 .61 crores were purchased during the tenure of DG AR Sinha. Manoje Nath who was DG BMP raised a lot of objections and BMP refused to take any such generators but the rest of the state police did take about 600 generators which had to be abandoned as junk because PD k oil could not be used for running generators. Later on the CAG found this purchase to be wasteful and wrote to the chief secretary to inititate action. The CM Nitish Kumar also announced to the media that the guilty will not be spared but nothing happened.  When R N SINGH an RTI activist applied for the copy of the letter of the PAG under RTI was told that no such letter had issued but the PAG provided him the copy of the letter as well as the copy of receipt in the office.

Meanwhile one wonders what kind of a reputation of Alok Kumar compelled Bihar government for requesting the centre to lend his services to Bihar. What special talent did he show within a few months that he was brought to Patna as SSP overlooking many officers of Bihar. He belongs to Nalanda but it appears that his talent to raise funds was also taken in consideration. The middleman Umesh Singh is reported to be the brother in-law of one of the closest aides of the CM. It is as it should be because any one less connected would not raise the price so much. It is also being speculated whether he  has  done a Senthil Kumar to his patrons in the sense he did not share the loot in the right proportion.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this report are purely those of the author and may not in any circumstances be regarded as the official view of BiharTimes.