PARTING GIFT BY BASSI – 14 SUSPENDED COPS RE-INSTATED

PANJIM: Outgoing director general of police (DGP) Bhimsen Bassi on Tuesday reinstated 14 of 37 suspended police personnel, despite a departmental inquiry pending against them.  The 14 police personnel have since been posted at Goa Reserve Police, a day before Bassi relinquished charge. Bassi handed over charge to new DGP Aditya Arya on Wednesday.

"Of the 37 suspended policemen, 14 have been reinstated with immediate effect, though there is a departmental inquiry pending against them. Action will be taken against the guilty. While few are facing charges of indiscipline, others are charged with accepting bribes or indulging in illegal acts. The reinstated policemen are of the rank of sub-inspectors and constables," police sources said.

Defending the decision, a senior police official said, "Many of them have been suspended for a long period and are drawing nearly 75% of their salary without doing any work. We thought it better to reinstate them and post them at GRP to serve the short-staffed force." A police officer suspended pending inquiry, draws half his salary for the first three months and 75% after that.

Not everyone under suspension for over three months has been reinstated. "No fixed policy has been followed to reinstate the officials. The decision has been taken per case, especially in cases where departmental inquiry has been pending for long," sources said.

The seven policemen suspended for their allegedinvolvement in the police-drug nexus cases and now drawing 75% of their salary have not been reinstated. Among those reinstated is PSI Sandhya Gupta dismissed from service on October 10, 2007 by former DGP B S Brar for allegedly demanding a bribe from a person charged under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. Based on a high court order she was later reinstated by the police and then suspended pending a departmental inquiry. The dismissal had come after an anti-narcotics cell constable Rajesh Warrang was caught by officials from the anticorruption bureau (ACB) accepting a bribe of .` 10,000, allegedly on behalf of the lady PSI from an accused in a drug case.

Constable Kishore Naik suspended for allegedly demanding a bribe from two Latvian nationals to extend their employment visas in Goa has also been reinstated, though he has admitted in writing that he had taken money from the foreigners. Naik, who was posted at the foreigners' registration office (FRO) had allegedly demanded.`60,000 from Latvian nationals-—Barazna Anzeline, 33, and Pogrebnaja Jekaterina, 29—for ensuring the extension of their employment visas. They alleged that despite paying the money to the constable, their visas were not extended. Naik was suspended on December 20, 2010 after which an inquiry was ordered.