13 Rohtas cops suspended, salary of 12 others withheld

SASARAM: Shahabad police range DIG Uma Shankar Sudhanshu has suspended 13 police officers posted in Rohtas district, including Town police station’s SHO inspector B K Singh, on the charge of dereliction of duty and misconduct. The DIG has also ordered to withhold salary payment to 12 other police officers.
Five proceedings against inspector Singh, who has allegedly been playing hide and seek with the DIG for the last several days, have also been initiated.“The functioning of Town police station is alarming,” the DIG said after inspecting the police station on Tuesday evening.
The DIG was originally scheduled to inspect the police station on December 29. After the message came, the inspector went on leave from December 22 to 27. But he did not report till the inspection date which had to be postponed to January 6.
The inspector again went on leave. “I fail to understand why the SP granted him leave when he was aware of my inspection schedule,” the DIG said.
Further, the inspector in violation of a state police HQ directive did not become IO (investigating officer) even in a single case even 11 months after his posting. Also, all the 44 unnatural death cases registered in the police station from 2010 to 2014 are pending. The inspector supervised just two cases during the last three months, the DIG said.
The DIG’s inspection revealed though 24 police officers were transferred from the police station, the cases they were handling were not transferred to their successors. “I have suspended the IOs who have been transferred to other districts in the range and withheld the salary of those IOs who are posted in other police stations of the district,” the DIG said.
The shock of the day for the DIG was the recovery of a steel box from the police station’s ‘maalkhana’. The box contained 37 firearms which had been declared ‘lawaris’, or unclaimed. But verification of records revealed the licensed arms were seized by the police and brought from Bhojpur district in 1993 and were rusting due to lack of proper maintenance.