Hours after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar suggested on 21 March that an in-depth probe could be carried out by Maharashtra former police commissioner, Julio Rubeiro, whose credibility was “beyond questioning”, Rubeiro said he would not touch this case with a ‘march pole’.
Speaking to NDTV in an interview, Rubeiro said, “Nobody has approached me and if they do, I will certainly not accept any such offer. I am not at an age where I can do such work and even if I was able to do it, I would not. I would not like to touch such a murky situation where there is money and these encounter specialists, and I do not know what lobbying these officers do to get positions of authority and power. I would not get involved in it at all.”
The senior journalist asked if there was any possibility at all of him heading the probe, to which he said, “I would not touch it with a march pole. This is a very tricky situation and I do not know where this is all going to lead. It is better for them to settle it themselves because you know the type of murky politics that is going on, I am disgusted.”
He said he would have quit the second he was made aware of a corruption allegation as big as this.
The allegations in this case by Mumbai Police officer Param Bir Singh are against Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, of corruption. Ribeiro said that allegations like this never happened at his time. “When it does happen, what do you do? Do you accept it? Suppose you have come to know that your juniors have been called by the minister and told they have to collect money. I mean the first thing I would do as a police commissioner, would be to object. I would go and meet the home minister and say: Why are you doing this? This is not okay. If you are going to do this, I am not going to accept it. If you also do not want to accept that, then I quit. That is what an honest and straightforward officer would do,” he told NDTV.
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