That Uttar Pradesh runs on a bit of whim and oodles on fancy of the ruling dispensation is perhaps not a theme open for debate any longer. So days after the state’s textile minister, Shiv Kumar Beria, warned that any police official who does not listen to him will be sacked, it emerges that at least five IPS officers and 24 provisional police service (PPS) officers were suspended in four years till February 13 this year without basis.

None of the 29 officers have yet been found guilty.

According to information received by RTI activist Nutan Thakur, two of five officers were “completely exonerated”, while charges against the other three are still under process.

The IPS officers suspended between January 1, 2009 and February 13, 2013 are Ajay Kumar Mishra, OP Sagar, DK Rai, SP Khiri, JN Singh and RP Chaturvedi.
The then DIG of Meerut, JN Singh was suspended on April 26, 2011 but got reinstated within two months. He was not even issued a formal chargesheet.
Fellow IPS Ajay Kumar Mishra was the senior superintendent of police in Etawah district when he was suspended on May 24, 2009. While his suspension continued for 15 months, he, too, was found not guilty in a departmental inquiry.

The  charges against the three  other officers  — Sagar was SP of Pratapgarh  when suspended on June 26, 2012, Rai was SP of Khiri when suspension order was effected on June 14, 2011, while RP Chaturvedi was SP of Jalaun when he was suspended on December 1, 2012 — are still under process.

Similar is the story with the PPS officers suspended, the RTI query has revealed. Among them are eight additional SPs and 16 deputy SPs. Here again, nine officers were  found not guilty in a departmental inquiry. These are  additional SPs Kushhar, KK Asthana, Ashok Kumar Verma and Dr BN Tiwari; and deputy SPs Jalim Singh, Ashok Kumar Singh, Ram Shankar Dwivedi, Santosh Kumar Singh and Mukul Dwivedi.

Incidentally, BN Tiwari was suspended as SP (traffic) Agra on September 25, 2012 following complaints that he got his shoelaces tied by a police constable but was reinstated on October 19 after a preliminary inquiry found him not guilty.

While the law says officers can be suspended only when serious departmental action is contemplated against them, RTI information obtained by Thakur seems to reinforce the point that in UP senior police officers are suspended on the whims and fancies of the powerful politicians.

"Suspension is a stigma which several officers come across without any reason. But suspensions must be applied with seriousness, as a casual approach defeats the whole purpose of suspending an officer,” Thakur told Governance Now over phone on Monday.