Rajasthan IPS officer dismissed from service over extramarital relationship

Jaipur, Mar 06: An IPS officer has been dismissed from service by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs over an alleged extramarital relationship, officials said. Pankaj Kumar Chaudhary, currently serving as the Commandant of Police Training School, Jhalawar was found guilty of grave misconduct, an official order said.

The action against the 2009-batch IPS officer of Rajasthan cadre was taken for establishing relations with another woman with whom he had a child. The order said the official violated rule 3 (1) of the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968.

The rule provides that every member of the service shall at all times maintain absolute integrity and devotion to duty and shall do nothing which is unbecoming of a member of the service. An inquiry was initiated against the officer in April 2016 on the basis of a complaint from his wife.

The then government forwarded the case to the Ministry of Home Affairs with a recommendation to impose a suitable major penalty on him. The Ministry sought comments from the Union Public Services Commission (UPSC) which advised his dismissal from the service.

Chaudhary married on December 4, 2005 and legally separated on May 1, 2018. During this period, he entered into a relationship with another woman and fathered a child from her, the order said.

The male child was born on May 14, 2011 in Jaipur, it said. Chaudhary (44), who hails from Varanasi, has landed into other controversies as well while he was the superintendent of police of Jaisalmer (February-July 2013) and Bundi (January-September 2014). He had reopened the history sheet of Congress leader Saleh Mohammad's father, Gazi Fakir, in Jaisalmer during the Congress rule in Rajasthan.

Saleh Mohammad, who was the Congress MLA that time, is the state minority affairs minister at present. After the history sheet was opened, Chaudhary was transferred to police training school in Kishangarh, Ajmer.

He was later made the Bundi SP, but was removed from the post in the wake of communal tension. The officer was served a chargesheet which accused him of not acting in time to tackle the riots.

When contacted, the IPS officer said he had received the dismissal order and would challenge it in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).

PTI