IPS officer’s association backs arrested Assam CID SSP

The IPS office’s association urged Assam DGP Mukesh Sahay to initiate a CBI probe into the issue leading up to the arrest of the IPS official.

Sending to a letter to the Assam DGP, the IPS officer’s association also urged the Assam police head to consider recommending for the inter-state transfer of the arrest IPS officer until the legal processes against him are not completed or for a minimum period of three years.

In the letter, the IPS officer’s organization said that the recent arrest of N Rajamarthandan under unusual circumstances has caused dismay members of the service across the country.

“Information available in the public domain indicates that the officer was arrested within a short time after an offence was registered under the sections of law for which maximum punishment prescribed is up to seven years. The allegations do not indicate corruption, moral turpitude or heinous offence. The circumstances do not indicate that section 41A notice could not have served the purpose. The cadre officers shared with us that the accused officer holds a reputation of being honest and hardworking,” the association said.

The secretary of the IPS officer’s association PV Rama Sastry said in the letter that, the association has constantly upheld the concept of functional autonomy to the investigating officers. Such autonomy however, in our humble opinion is contingent upon strict adherence to the law of arrests and bails.

“We are constrained to observe that the present situation leaves us with a feeling that the action taken by the investigating and supervising officers is disproportionately high and harsher than the usual response in such cases. If such examples recur and slowly become a norm, it will put a question mark on our ability to handle the power of arrest and treatment of officers of the service, which will indeed be against the best interests of the service,” said in the letter.

N Rajamarthandan, who was the supervising officer of the special investigating team constituted by the Assam government following the AASU office ransack.

Assam police had arrested the IPS officer after proving that he had leaked the information of the investigation report of the incident through RTI and provided the information to the general secretary of Nikhil Bharat Bangali Udbastu Samanvay Samiti (NIBBUSS).

“It has been reported that the complainant is a senior officer of the state CID. As a senior officer of the premier investigating agency of the state has taken a position in the matter, principles of natural justice warrant that investigation may be entrusted to the CBI which will be in a position to take a dispassionate view,” the IPS officer’s association said.

The organization also urged the Assam DGP that, when the matter comes before the court for hearing on bail, it may be ensured that the response is not a mechanical opposition but a well-considered and fair one, taking into consideration the case law on bails which is against unnecessary incarceration in pre-trial custody.

Earlier, a local court in Guwahati had sent the arrested SSP (CID) to 14-day judicial custody.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath,Image: Google Maps)