GC Murmu, Probed in the Ishrat Jahan Case, Appointed First J&K L-G

A controversial record precedes the 59-year-old, who has been questioned in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case.

(A version of this article was first published a year ago. It has been republished in the light of GC Murmu being appointed the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir.)

IAS officer Girish Chandra Murmu was appointed the first Lieutenant Governor of Jammu-Kashmir on Friday, 25 October. The current governor of the state, Satya Pal Malik, is being transferred and appointed as Governor of Goa.

Murmu, a 1985-batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre, will be administered oath of office on 31 October in Srinagar after which he will become the administrative head of Kashmir and Jammu.

Who is GC Murmu?

In 2017, GC Murmu was appointed special secretary in the Department of Revenue. A senior Gujarat bureaucrat, GC Murmu is considered to be a trusted confidante of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Formerly joint secretary in Department of Expenditure, his appointment at the time was cleared by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet headed by the prime minister in 2015. Additionally, he has served as the principle secretary to PM Modi and secretary of the Home Department during Modi’s tenure as chief minister.

Hailing from Sundargarh district in Odisha, Murmu holds a Masters Degree from Utkal University in Bhubaneshwar and an MBA from UK's University of Birmingham.

A Controversial Record

A controversial record precedes the 59-year-old IAS officer.

In September 2013, for example, Murmu was questioned by the CBI in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case.

In June the same year, Tehelka published an exposé, that detailed on a recording in the hands of the Central Bureau of Investigation between then junior home minister Praful Patel, then Additional Principal Secretary GC Murmu, senior law officer Kamal Trivedi and two others. In the audio, the participants had allegedly discussed ways to cover up the crime.

It is also alleged that he suppressed investigations in the 2002 riots, and when Murmu was tipped to become ED director in 2015, former DGP of Gujarat RB Sreekumar called attention to inquiries pending against him for “trying to influence officers against deposing truthfully before the Justice Nanavati Commission of inquiry into the 2002 Gujarat riots”, a report published by The Wire in 2015 states.

Murmu was also accused by Sreekumar of allegedly forcing the latter to commit perjury while deposing. The former DGP added Murmu had been authorised by ‘highest authorities’ to tutor government officials before the deposition.

(With inputs from PTI archives, The Wire, Tehelka)