Mumbai Mirror: Mumbai: Sunday, 27 July 2014.
CIC does not
have any powers to order a judicial probe: Govt.
The state
government has decided to challenge Chief Information Commissioner Ratnakar
Gaikwad's order earlier this month to institute a judicial probe against Police
Commissioner Rakesh Maria for providing misleading information to the widow of
a police officer gunned down by Pakistani terrorists in the November 2008
attacks.
According to
reliable sources, the government will challenge the order in the high court on
the grounds that the CIC does not have the power to order a probe, leave alone
a judicial inquiry by a sitting or retired judge of the high court as sought by
Gaikwad. The government decision, sources said, follows seniors officers'
consultations with senior counsel Shekhar Naphade.
The CIC's
order against Maria had followed slain officer Ashok Kamte's wife Vinita
Kamate's allegations that there were discrepancies between two copies of call
logs of wireless conversations between the control room and Kamte's van, in
which he was shot down by terrorists along with the then Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant
Karkare and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar.
She had
charged that there was a delay in sending help to her injured husband and his
colleagues and that the call logs were tampered with to hide this. She had also
alleged that information about who directed her husband and his colleagues to
follow the terrorists into the Cama Hospital lane, where they were ambushed,
was denied to her.
Maria, who
was joint commissioner of police (Crime Branch) when the attack took place, had
headed the control room for some time during the attack. Later, he also headed
an inquiry into the Mumbai police force's response to the attack that ended
three days and left 164 people dead.
RTI activist
Anil Galgali said the CIC had exceeded its brief in ordering the judicial
inquiry. "Gaikwad has been appointed by the state government to give
information and thereby give justice. But he has no powers to order an inquiry.
The job of the state information commission is to provide information. They
have failed in that," he said.
The
three-page order by Gaikwad was stinging and had caused immense embarrassment
to both Maria and the government. "Considering the information available,
it looks like in this matter misleading information was provided, deliberately
no information was shared or information was destroyed, delays were caused in
providing information etc. And the Commission agrees with the doubts raised by
the complainant (Vinita Kamte)," it said.
Accusing
Maria of being irresponsible, the order added: "Maria did not allow
information to be shared with Vinita Kamte. It is highly irresponsible. Is he
trying to hide some information in the matter? It looks like if an impartial
inquiry is not initiated then Vinita and the public will not be able to receive
true information."
The order
also referred to two occasions when Maria had refused to appear before the CIC
when it was hearing Vinita Kamte's application.
When this
newspaper contacted Maria on Saturday, he refused to comment on the CIC order
as also the government's move to challenge it in the HC.
Gaikwad,
however, appeared unperturbed by the government's decision to challenge his
order. "Let them challenge my order. The only step left for me was to pass
the order to institute a judicial probe.''
Vinita Kamte
said that she would wait and watch.