Govt asks DGP to go on leave

NAGPUR: The state government has asked director-general of police (housing) Rahul Gopal to proceed on ten days'' leave and directed the home department to file a report on him expeditiously. Gopal, an IPS officer of the 1971 batch, was at a guest house off Peddar Road in Mumbai on December 8 when the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) raided it and seized Rs 1 lakh in cash.
The ACB arrested Govind Chandok, an astrologer who allegedly fixed government deals and stayed in the guest house, but it let Gopal off the hook despite the money being found from the official car in which he had come to meet Chandok.
Sources in the Democratic Front (DF) government told TOI on Tuesday that deputy chief minister R R Patil,who is in charge of the home portfolio, had issued orders to expedite the probe into the episode which has shaken the state police establishment.
The inquiry will also try and ascertain the identity of the senior officers who operated throughChandok.
"Gopal has claimed that the cash found in his car had been taken by him as an interest-free loan from Chandok. But the explanation does not appear to be credible.Hence, Patil has ordered a full-fledged inquiry into the affair," the sources added.
Gopal had stated that he knew Chandok since 1973 when he had been posted in Solapur.Chandok was a resident of Barsi in Solapur, but shifted to Pune later. Gopal said he had consulted Chandok, who reads horoscopes, in the past as well. Sources said Patil had decided to act tough since thematter involved an officer of the rank of DG.
Also, the incident has come just when the state police seems to be recovering from the aftershocks of the arrest of senior officers likeRS Sharma and Sridhar Vagal in the fake stamp paper scam.