In a a strange case, an IPS officer has written a letter to department of personnel to terminate services of another IPS officer, who has hit headlines after a district court orders to conduct murder trial in the “encounter” of dreaded gangster Anand Pal Singh.
Pankaj Kumar Choudhary, a 2009 batch IPS, who was reinstated after dismissal from services over charges of grave misconduct, has demanded dismissal of IPS Rahul Barhat – two batches senior to Choudhary, who is serving as SP Community Policing.
According to Choudhary, Barhat has been accused of murdering a gangster Anand Pal Singh in a fake encounter.
“He should be immediately removed from the services and all his gallantry medals and cash reward given for his daring act should be confiscated,” he said.
The issue erupted after an ACJM court in Churu ordered murder trial against 7 cops including Rahul Barhat for killing gangster in a fake encounter on June 24, 2017. The court has also dismissed the closure report submitted by CBI, which had found the encounter genuine.
Rahul Barhat, who is on deputation with ministry of external affairs at Mumbai, was then SP of Churu district, when encounter of gangster Anand Pal Singh took place. He was applauded by the state government for leading the police team, which gunned down Anand Pal after a deadly exchange of bullets.
Drawing a parallel between his case and Barhat's episode, Choudhary has written principal secretary DoP that while the state government has rewarded an IPS involved in ‘fake encounter', it has tortured another IPS (Pankaj Choudhary) on ‘frivolous' charges. Choudhary was charged with bigamy having married a woman without legally getting divorce from his first wife. The state government had dismissed Choudhary from the service.
Pankaj Choudhary challenged the allegations in Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) which reinstated him in the service after setting aside the charges.
Pankaj Choudhary said that the state government has penalised him by withholding his three promotions and other benefits.
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