MP files RTI plea to seek details of police combing op

Times of India‎: Aurangabad: Saturday, June 18, 2016.

MP Chandrakant Khaire has shot off a fresh Right To Information (RTI) application, seeking details of a recent combing operation against criminals by police that led to the suicide by a teenager.

The copy of the RTI application, which has a set of 10 questions, is with the TOI. Officials said this was perhaps for the first time in the state that any MP has sought details of combing operation by police against criminals.

During an all-out combing operation conducted on the night of June 7, the city police had detained 25 criminals, including 50-year-old Harishchandra Nade, a resident of Jikthan in the MIDC Waluj area.

The man had a couple of cases registered against him years ago, but was released by the commissioner of police after primary investigation revealed that he does not fall in to the category of "active criminals".

A day later, Nade's 17-year-old son, Sagar, allegedly committed suicide by jumping in a well, following which Khaire visited the family of the deceased family and blamed city police chief Amitesh Kumar for his alleged highhandedness leading to the teenager's death.

The four-time MP even lodged a written complaint against Kumar with the chief minister and emailed its copy to the media houses.

Khaire filing an RTI query seeking petty information has raised many eyebrows, with senior police officers, including a former commissioner of police terming it to be an act of personal vendetta, against the incumbent top cop.

Kumar said, "The combing operation was a professional drive. The suicide was unfortunate but there is absolutely no truth in to the allegations being made against us. I have already ordered probe in to the matter."

He said he has already asked to reply to the RTI query by the Sena MP, with all the possible details on record.

A former commissioner of police and currently an additional director general of police said, "The Sena MP's pressure tactics against police officers is not new. But the filing of an RTI seeking details of combing operation is a new low."