Honest Police Officer Show-Caused in Bihar

Top cop slapped show cause for holding Press Conference

Patna,(BiharTimes): The Bihar government has issued a show cause to a top police officer of the state for holding Press Conference seven months after he actually talked to the media.

The concerned person is once again a DG rank officer Manoje Nath. The state government recently slapped a show-cause on him for holding a Press Conference in April last. He talked to media then to deny the allegations levelled by BSEB chairman Swapan Mukherjee, said to be close to the powers that be.


Surprisingly the state government took this step only a few days after his transfer from the post of Director General Bihar State Electricity Board (Vigilance Cell) and Patna high court order in his favour.

It needs to be recalled that earlier this year Nath had instituted a case against Swapan Mukherjee for allegedly causing a benefit of Rs 20 crore to a Sabalpur (Patna)-based steel company at the cost of BSEB. The chairman subsequently lodged a complaint case in the CJM's court, alleging he was being victimised because he failed to oblige Nath with a better office chamber despite his threats.

However, Nath spoke about the documentary evidence against Mukherjee at a Press Conference. A case against Mukherjee and four other BSEB officials was lodged. Soon after this the state government initiated departmental proceedings against Nath in a case related to the October 2005 assembly election. He was charged with not obeying the order of the then DGP, Ashish Ranjan Sinha. The latter ordered probe into the arrest and release of the RJD candidate from Jamui, Vijay Kumar Yadav. The state government took action notwithstanding the fact that the Election Commission of India gave a clean chit to Nath in the matter.

Nath moved the Patna High Court which stayed the departmental proceedings and asked the state home secretary to review if the government really needs to go ahead with the proceedings against him.

After this Nath was transferred from the post of DG (Vigilance Cell) of the BSEB and made DG (Sports Authority) last month. Now media reports quoting sources said the then chief secretary, R J M Pillai, had asked the then principal secretary (vigilance), B K Verma, on April 4 to examine whether it was proper for Nath to hold a Press Conference; whether it was proper for him to register a case against Mukherjee without obtaining prior permission and whether it was right for Mukherjee to lodge a complaint case against DG, vigilance.

Verma, according to reports, wrote back to Pillai that senior officers do keep addressing Press Conferences. Further, he wrote, the charges levelled against Mukherjee and others were based on documentary evidence. He also quoted from a Supreme Court ruling to inform Pillai that the registration of the case was procedurally correct. Verma termed Mukherjee’s complaint case against Nath as “an afterthought”.

In spite of this opinion of the principal secretary (vigilance) the state government issued show cause to Nath recently.

So you thought Nitish Kumar is honest.
At least I used to think him so.
However, the above shows him in a different light.
If a person who has hi-lighted corruption and was instrumental in having a corrupt BSEB chairman removed is show-caused, it does not speak very highly of Nitish.
By the way, from my own experience when I was in Bihar between 1975 to 1977, I know BSEB is a complete den of corruption. I had mentioned a few days back how one industrialist used to send the same drum of cables to the BSEB godown during the day and got it back at night to return the same cables the next day. This industrialist had a small ACSR/AAC condutor factory in Patna. Now they are one of the top industrialists in India owing Aluminium manufacturing units, are in mining etc etc.
I was wrong in saying that at least Nitish was honest.
They are all the same, all politicians