Former Raigad superintendent of police Anil Paraskar is in trouble for his alleged inept handling of the
Anvay Naik suicide case
. Apparently, pressure is now mounting on home minister Anil Deshmukh to take action against Paraskar, an IPS officer of the 2009 batch, and then investigating officer, Suresh Varade.
Deshmukh has found both Paraskar and Varade did not investigate the deaths of
Anvay Naik
and his mother seriously.
They also attempted to shield the main accused. It is alleged that at the instance of a then senior BJP cabinet member, Paraskar had provided special facility to the accused.
Instead of recording his statement in Alibaug, where the crime took place, he was allowed to record it in Mumbai and that too in the office of a joint commissioner of police. Deshmukh, who took a massive risk by not only initiating criminal proceedings against the main accused, but also arresting them in the wee hours, is in the process of gathering specific evidence against the police officials in Raigad district, who went beyond the provisions of law to help the accused. A senior IPS officer says Deshmukh has asked the investigating officers to build a watertight case so that there is no scope for the accused to get away. Deshmukh says it's not a witch hunt and that his government will take the criminal case to a logical end.
What integrity pledge? A week ago, a senior official of the state power utility took an oath that he would not accept bribe and signed an integrity pledge on the occasion of vigilance awareness week from October 27 to November 2. Other officials in the Kolhapur office also signed the pledge. A week later, the officer was caught accepting a bribe of Rs 6,000 for granting no-objection certificate to install a solar power system. It appears that owing to lack of supervision at all levels corruption is on the rise in the power sector. A quick glance at data compiled by state power utilities reveals even for re-connecting power, one has to pay a heavy bribe to officials.
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