Maharashtra DIG asked 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 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 ascertain the identity of the officers who operated through Chandok.
"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 the probe," the sources said.