Former state director general of police (DGP) Prashant Chandra Pande and former Ahmedabad police commissioner OP Mathur retired from service.
Former state director general of police (DGP) Prashant Chandra Pande and former Ahmedabad police commissioner OP Mathur retired from service on Tuesday. Both the cops, who have had brushes with controversy, were given a farewell by officers at the IPS officers mess in Ahmedabad.
In February, in a reshuffle, both Pande and Mathur were removed from their posts on the direction of the Election Commission.
Pande was replaced by Shabbir Hussain Shekhadam Khandwawala and posted as director general of anti-corruption bureau. Mathur, a 1975 batch IPS officer, was also shifted out as director general of communications and replaced by SK Saikia who was the city police chief for seven months till he was unceremoniously removed in 2008.
Incidentally, in 1977, Khandwawala had replaced Pande as ADC to the governor after a stint as the Valsad SP. Pande represented India at the Interpol General Assembly in 1998.
The Gujarat government had appealed to the supreme court seeking a six-month extension for Pande as well as Mathur but the appeal was turned down.
Pande, an IPS officer of 1970 batch, became DGP in 2006. He was removed from the post by the election commission during the 2007 assembly elections. The state government re-appointed him to the post after the elections.
The Election Commission had got Pande removed as there were allegations about his inaction during the post-Godhra riots in the city in 2002. The special investigation team appointed by the supreme court is now investigating his role in the communal
violence.
Mathur, who was in the eye of a storm after a media report about his alleged links with underworld don Abdul Latif, was also accused in a sexual harassment case. He is accused of sexually harassing an advocate. The case is pending in a local court.
According to sources, Mathur, considered to be close to chief minister Narendra Modi, had allegedly tried to put hurdles in the way of supreme court ordered investigation into the fake encounter killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh for which three IPS officers were arrested. He was then additional director general of
police.
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