After uproar over Maria's removal as police chief, govt says he'll 'monitor' Sheena probe

MUMBAI: Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday abruptly shunted out the high-profile Rakesh Maria as Mumbai police commissioner, raising questions over the real reasons behind the move and its timing. An IPS officer of the 1981 batch, Maria, who was due for promotion as director-general of police on October 1, was asked to swap posts with Ahmed Javed, who headed home guards and civil defence, a relatively obscure outpost.
Widespread criticism of the decision to shift Maria, who was personally supervising the sensational Sheena Bora murder case, forced the state government to fire-fight. Additional chief secretary K P Bakshi issued a three-line order in the evening saying even though Maria had been transferred on promotion, he would continue to monitor the Sheena case.
Talk in the corridors of power is that Maria's fate was sealed after Fadnavis criticized Maria for focusing on high-profile crimes at the cost of other cases. The CM chose not to wait till September 30 (the date of Maria's promotion) but effected his unceremonious exit before leaving for Japan, by specially upgrading the Mumbai CP post to the rank of director general to accommodate Javed, an IPS officer of the 1980 batch who is due for retirement on January 31, 2016.

Sources said that soon after taking over as CM Fadnavis late last year made up his mind to shift Maria on the grounds that he was still reporting to the NCP leadership. All along, Maria had denied the charge, saying he was loyal to the government, not to any political party. The CM found an opportunity to shunt Maria after his 'secret' meeting with Lalit Modi became public, but failed to carry it through for political reasons.
Even as Fadnavis came under flak, Bakshi strongly defended the decision, saying it was a routine administrative proposal and no politics was involved. "It's a routine decision. Maria's transfer is not linked to the ongoing probe into the Sheena Bora murder case. We felt that if a new CP took over immediately, he would settle in quickly, particularly in view of the ensuing 10-day Ganesh festival, followed by the festive season,'' Bakshi said.