By IANS
Ranchi : Jharkhand’s home department has recommended to Chief Minister Madhu Koda that Amitabh Chaudhary, inspector general, Crime Investigation Department (CID), be suspended for violating the service code of conduct.
According to official sources, Home Secretary Sudhir Tripathy has written to the chief minister seeking suspension of Chaudhary, who had sought approval to prosecute Chief Secretary P.P. Sharma in a corruption case.
According to the home secretary, the inspector general had been found guilty under the All India Service (Conduct) Rules (unauthorised communication of information) for leaking to the media a letter seeking prosecution of the top bureaucrat.
The ball is now in the chief minister’s court.
In his letter to Additional Director General of Police Gauri Shankar Rath, Chaudhary had asked for approval to prosecute Sharma in a case where the chief secretary faced corruption charges from the time he was managing director of Biscoumaun of Patna and secretary in the department of cooperatives in 1988.
The IG’s letter said Sharma ordered fertilisers from Rajasthan’s Suraj Brand company at a cost of Rs.2,509.50 per metric tonne while the prevailing price of the brand was Rs.2,000. The fertiliser supplied by the company was found to be substandard. Despite that, Sharma paid Rs.5.4 million to the company, according to the letter.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has demanded the sack of the chief secretary and his arrest. Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Democratic president Babulal Marandi has said both officials should be removed and the case handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The Jharkhand government is yet to seek an explanation from the chief secretary.