7 more IPS suspended; 7400 more constables sacked in UP police scam

Lucknow, Sep 30 (UNI) The Uttar Pradesh government today suspended seven more IPS officers and annulled the recruitments of 7,400 constables, recruited during the previous Mulayam Singh Yadav government, following large-sacle irregularities.

With the fresh wave of annullments and suspensions, the total number of constables sacked has reached 17,868. The total number of IPS offices suspended for committing irregularities has sprialled to 25. The senior-most IPS officer suspended was Additional director general of police (ADGP) B K Bhalla.

Addressing reporters here, state principal secretary (Home) J N Chamber said, the government has decided to annul the recruitments made by 18 recruitment boards and suspended 7 IPS officers who headed these boards. A total of 7400 constables -- 1900 recruited for Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) and another 1200 recruited for wireless (radio) services -- were also removed from services.

''The government has decided to suspend ADG B K Bhalla, IGs A D Mishra and S K Saxena, DIGs M S Yadav, Prabhat Kumar and V K Aggarwal and SP Dr G K Goswami,'' he added.

''IPS officers R N Yadav, Daljit Singh Chaudhury, Ramendra Vikram Singh, Shailendra Pratap Singh, Chavinath Singh and Akhilesh Mehrotra were also found with committing irregularities in the 18 recruitment boards. Since these officers have already been suspended, the new charges have been attached to their charge-sheets,'' Mr Chamber added.

''Bulk of the 22,000 police recruitments made by 55 separate selection boards during the previous regime were irregular in one way or the other,'' he said.

As against scanning of 15 selection boards carried out in the earlier round of the probe, the second and third round looked into the recruitment process conducted by 11 and 18 boards respectively.

Of these, only one got a clean chit. ''The only selection board that appeared spotless was headed by Prashant Kumar, the DIG in Saharanpur, where 310 cops were recruited,'' Mr Chamber pointed out.

The matter is being referred to the anti-corruption department for a detailed probe after which further action would follow against the indicted officers.

On September 12, 14 IPS officers were suspended while disciplinary proceedings were initiated against 51 Provincial Police Service officers in connection with the irregularities in the selection process in the first round, which exposed the biggest ever recruitment scam in the history of the state.

All those sacked would get a fair chance at the fresh recruitment process that would be undertaken shortly. We would even give them age relaxation wherever necessary,'' the officer added.

UNI