A joint director in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) should ordinarily be just a cog in the wheel. That is if the person concerned is not Rajeshwar Singh. How important he is can be gauged from the fact that the day after he announced his decision to seek voluntary retirement from the ED, his plea was accepted. What’s more, he was also nominated by the BJP to contest the ongoing election from Sarojini Nagar in Lucknow. He was given the ticket by replacing Minister Swati Singh. Rajeshwar Singh rose to the occasion by thanking persons like the Prime Minister, the home minister, the finance minister and his immediate boss, the director. How many police officers would be so connected and so privileged as to quit the service with such fanfare and start a new career that could take them to higher reaches of political power in the state and even beyond?
A UP provincial cadre police officer, his career took a dramatic turn when he joined the ED on deputation. Among the cases he handled were the 2G Spectrum allocation, the Aircel-Maxis deal, the Commonwealth Games scam, the coal block allocation scam and the Augusta-Westland helicopter deal. He has also handled high-profile cases involving the former finance minister, P Chidambaram, and his son Karthik Chidambaram, former Haryana Chief Minister O P Chautala, former Jharkhand Chief Minister, Madhu Koda and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy. It is a different matter that in most of these cases, there was no conviction. However, the cases served the purpose of those in power, who wanted to show the opposition leaders concerned in a poor light.
After quitting service, he said in a statement that he was influenced by Modi’s leadership and was convinced that India would become a ‘vishwa guru’ in a few years. Under these circumstances, if the public believes that he was doing political work in the name of policing, could they be blamed? In many respects, police officers are more important than law,for they implement its strictures and decide when it is to be applied. Whether government is by men, or by law, depends to a marked extent on the nature of the police officers. What a tragedy that such a political animal was allowed to use the uniform to sub serve his own vested interests!
