After Param Bir, Another Officer Might Drag Maha Govt to the Court

Sanjay Pandey was one of the officers transferred in the reshuffle that saw Param Bir Singh being transferred.

Sanjay Pandey (R) and Param Bir Singh (L)

(Photo: The Quint)

Just days after former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh dragged the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to the Supreme Court, another officer transferred along with Singh might approach the Bombay High Court against his posting.

Sanjay Pandey, a 1986 batch officer and currently the most senior officer in the state is likely to move the Bombay HC over allegedly being snubbed for the post of Maharashtra DGP, as per protocol and other officers junior to him being given higher posts in alleged breach of process.

Pandey was one of the officers whose posting had changed in the recent reshuffle that saw former Mumbai Police Commissioner Singh being transferred in the backdrop of the Mukesh Ambani bomb scare case. 

While Singh’s transfer to DG, Home Guard garnered headlines, three other officers’ postings were also changed.

• Former Maharashtra DGP, Hemant Nagrale was appointed as Commissioner of Police, Mumbai
• Former DG, Home Guard, Sanjay Pandey was appointed as the DG, Maharashtra State Security Corporation
• DG, Anti Corruption, Rajneesh Sheth was given additional charge of Maharashtra DGP

Soon after the transfers, Pandey had written to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray expressing displeasure over being deliberately snubbed for higher posts “due to personal prejudices” and alleged Singh and Nagrale of not cooperating with him in probes of high profile cases.

‘Deliberate Sidelining’: Pandey’s Claims in Letter to Thackeray

Soon after the reshuffle, Pandey wrote a letter to CM Thackeray over his alleged sidelining and said that he was facing injustice.

In the letter accessed by The Quint, Pandey said: “When the post of DGP became vacant after Subodh Jaiswal left, you did not even consider to give additional charge to me and handed over the same to a junior officer. In fact giving additional charge too for acting DG is illegal and against Hon’ble SC orders in Prakash Singh case.”

“Now after the recent explosive case controversy in Mumbai, you again overlooked me and handed over additional charge of DGP, to a still junior officer much against Hon’ble SC orders in Prakash Singh’s case,” he added.

Adding that he was not even made a member of the police establishment board despite being the senior most, Pandey called it “a huge insult wherein transfers and postings of DG rank officers which includes me are being considered and debated by officers junior to me in police force”.

‘Have Faced Non Cooperation in the Past’

Training guns at Singh and Nagrale in the letter, Pandey said that he has faced non-cooperation from both officers while he was ordered to conduct inquiries against another senior officer ADG Deven Bharati, the reports of which he claimed to have submitted to Deshmukh and Thackeray.

Pandey also alleged that findings of Singh allegedly threatening witnesses in the case were also put on record by him.

“This inquiry against Deven Bharati, I have had severe hurdles to face with non cooperation from CP Mumbai and the then DGP Maharashtra. In fact witnesses were threatened on record by CP Shri Pramabir Singh, a fact which was reported to the government. No papers till date have been given to me by CP Mumbai in spite of my making a reference to the government too in this regard on several occasions,” Pandey alleged.

Pandey told Thackeray that he had brought up these issues in several meetings with Home Minister Deshmukh but “the insult and injustice continues”.

“If I was an incompetent officer with a much maligned record these oversights might be reasonable. But on the contrary it was recognising my competence and integrity, from among all the police officers in Maharashtra, I was entrusted serious confidential inquiries in recent past,” Pandey said.

Mentioning examples of a few other high-profile cases, Pandey said: “Lastly sir, all of us work up to build a career over several painstaking years. To see the same being demolished just due to some personal prejudices is grossly unjust.”