There were indications that Rath’s resignation is unlikely to be accepted as he was facing a probe on charges of “gross instances of misconduct”.
Photo: SNS
Even before his resignation from the IPS has been accepted, IGP Basant Rath on Tuesday kicked up another controversy by again opening the front against DGP Dilbag Singh by saying on his Twitter handle that the latter “will be responsible if anything bad happens to my reputation and safety”.
Rath, who is facing a probe by the union home ministry on charges of “gross instances of misconduct”, also wrote on social media; “If the BJP high-command allows me, Ill contest
against Omar Abdullah who was my chief minister when I was the police chief in Jammu and Mehbooba Mufti who was my chief minister when I was the chief of traffic police in Jammu and Kashmir”.
Rath had on Saturday sought voluntary retirement from IPS to join electoral politics in J&K and Ladakh UTs. He posted on social media his resignation letter addressed to the chief secretary. He also wrote earlier; “If I ever join a political party, it WILL be BJP”.
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Rath was placed under suspension in July 2020 after he made certain personal allegations on social media against Dilbag Singh. The public spat by him caused embarrassment for the BJP
government that had at that time abrogated Article 370 and the situation in J&K was fluid. He had also filed a complaint in Jammu’s Gandhi Nagar police station claiming that he faced threat to his life from the DGP.
Taking cognizance of what was happening, the home ministry placed rath under suspension and posted him in the home guards & civil defence.
There were indications that Rath’s resignation is unlikely to be accepted as he was facing a probe on charges of “gross instances of misconduct”.
Rath had earlier come into the limelight when another DGP had pointed out to him that he was generally seen performing his duty in civvies.
Rath again triggered a controversy in 2018 when as IGP (Traffic) he got in public arguments with the Srinagar Mayor Junaid Mattu who had made certain suggestions on traffic movement in the city. He was shifted from traffic to the insignificant Home Guards when the spat started taking an ugly turn.
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