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Over a year after Rakesh Maria was removed as Mumbai police Chief, reportedly for taking “too much interest” in the Sheena Bora murder case, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said the high-profile officer was “promoted” a bit early to “avoid controversies”.
He said that Maria was not transferred but promoted and that there was nothing unusual in a Commissioner of Police being promoted a few weeks earlier than scheduled.
Fadnavis said, unexpectedly, a fresh controversy erupted after his promotion which made him give Maria the permission to “supervise” the investigation.
Fadnavis also said the state government has not received any official communication from the CBI about any officer’s interrogation or direct or indirect connection with any accused in the case.
Maria and two other senior Maharashtra police officers were recently examined by the CBI officials as they were part of the initial probe team which investigated the Sheena Bora murder case and arrested her mother Indrani Mukerjea.
Besides Maria, the CBI also questioned Deven Bharti, Joint Commissioner (Law and Order) and Satya Narayan Choudhary, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone-X).
A controversy had erupted in June last year after some TV news channels showed photographs of Maria with former IPL boss Lalit Modi in London. Modi faces charges of financial irregularities and money laundering in India. After Fadnavis demanded an explanation, Maria issued a statement saying that he had met the former IPL Commissioner at the insistence of the latter’s lawyer in London in 2014.
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