Transferred DGP quits, alleges harassment

By NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Asenior Indian Police Service Officer has resigned from service accusing harassment from ‘a few individuals.’

Director General of Police (DGP) Dr P Ravindranath, who was recently transferred to the training wing of Karnataka State Police, resigned from his services on Tuesday. However, he has said that he is not against the government.

In his resignation letter, Ravindranath wrote, “I am pained to observe the opacity shown by Karnataka Chief Secretary Ravikumar when I requested him to issue a government order to set up a protection cell as per rules of SC & ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules 1995.”

Further, he wrote, “I am prematurely transferred without any public interest just to harass me, since I have taken legal action against people involved in the fake caste certificate issue.”

A day before tendering his resignation, the DGP had said that he will resign from his services after meeting with the Chief secretary P Ravi Kumar on Tuesday.

Notably, the of ficer who was earlier heading Civil Rights Enforcement had registered 1,097 FIRs against those who had procured fake caste certificates for various purposes in districts including Kalaburagi, Uttara Kannada and Bidar.

The accused were later booked under criminal intimidation Act. This included 89 government officials who were dismissed from their services after the department found that they were accused of taking fake certificates.

The DGP had also asked those who had obtained caste certificates under the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe to approach district administration voluntarily for cancellation to save legal action. However, a former IPS officer Kempaiah failed to appear before the officer in connection with the case. Next day, a notice was sent to his house on April 26, sources said.

“The transfer, which is not in the interest of the public and is a clear case of conspiracy against me for taking legal action against people involved in the fake caste certificate issue,” Ravindranath said. “I had recently revealed a few influential names during a press meet after which I was targeted and later transferred by the government,” he added.

The 1989-batch officer is known for resigning and later withdrawing his resignation letters. He had tendered his resignation in 2008, 2014 and 2020 earlier.