How was my transfer from Bhavnagar in public interest, asks IPS officer Rahul Sharma

Senior IPS officer Rahul Sharma has expressed doubts about the state government’s intention in transferring him from Bhavnagar district to Ahmedabad as DCP of the city police control room during the riots of 2002.

On Wednesday, Sharma filed a rejoinder affidavit before Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) through counsels Mukul Sinha and KG Pillai. In his rejoinder, he replied to state government’s claim in its affidavit that his transfer was in ‘public interest’.

Sharma has questioned the conduct of the government by stating it is difficult to understand how public interest was served by transferring him. He has stated that when he was transferred from Bhavnagar where he was posted as superintendent of police during the riots, situation in the district was returning to normalcy.

The government had also alleged that Sharma had submitted copies of the telephone call data CDs of the riot period before the Nanavati Commission voluntarily, in an effort to get immunity from any future departmental inquiry for not depositing the CDs before his higher officers.

Sharma has denied this allegation in his rejoinder. He has stated that if nobody but he knew of the CDs, as claimed by the government, how could the government have acted on it if he had not submitted the CDs before the commission?

The IPS officer has challenged before CAT the charge sheet issued to him by the government. The government has charged the IPS officer on the ground that he had acquired telephone call data CDs from the then two mobile service providers AT&T and Cellforce but had not deposited them with his higher officials in the crime branch when he was assisting in the probe of riots in Ahmedabad in 2002.