A retired bureaucrat has written to the Maharashtra Human Rights Commission (MHEC) seeking the transfer of Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar in connection with the May 19 Porsche accident that claimed two lives.
In his letter, Arun Bhatia sought to highlight the "vulgar, primitive and frightening exhibition of police corruption and dirt at the top level administration engaged in destroying evidence to save the driver who killed two people".
"I invoke your intervention in this case because it has jolted us, increased our insecurity and shown us the terrifying face of our governance and democracy. Corrupt officials and harassed citizens are now a part of everyday life," he said in his letter to the MHRC chairman.
"Since we have ignored this, the corruption is now pervasive, unsparing and institutionalised. It is not just one official who is evil; the entire officialdom is so. When this union of officials happens and departments combine they become impregnable. The isolated citizen has no chance against this adversary," said Bhatia.
In this case, police officials and senior doctors (including) the chief medical officer of the largest government hospital (Sassoon) in Pune have colluded to save a criminal, claimed the retired IAS officer.
"The blood sample for testing alcohol consumption was delayed by the police for more than six hours; the police fed him pizza in the police station before the blood test, then the sample was destroyed by the doctors and replaced; the recording of statements of witnesses and car occupants was delayed and so on," the letter says.
The basic and standard norms of investigation were discarded and time was made available to the culprits to concoct a defence, he said.
The police commissioner, an IPS officer, is reported to have called the blood testing story a "procedural lapse", Bhatia said in the letter, adding that the former, as per media reports, had claimed there was no political pressure to save the doctors but "two politicians had turned up at the police station".
"I request the HR (human rights) Commission to take special note of the fact that unless senior officials are made accountable for the misdeeds of their subordinates the government departments will not improve. That subordinates collect bribe money for higher officials is common knowledge," he stated in the letter.
For the sake of impartial investigation, the police commissioner must be transferred out of Pune immediately and his conduct should be investigated as he represents the police force in the city, Bhatia urged.
"The appointment of the doctor as Chief Medical Officer on the basis of a politician's recommendation should be investigated and the Health Secretary punished," he added.
