सामाजिक कार्यकर्ता डॉ नूतन ठाकुर ने लोक सभा चुनावों की घोषणा के ठीक पहले एसपी गोंडा के रूप में नियुक्त किये गए उदय शंकर जायसवाल द्वारा तैनाती के 24 घंटे के अंदर ही 10 थानों और 4 पुलिस चौकियों में फेरबदल करने के सम्बन्ध में चुनाव आयोग को शिकायत भेजी है।
शिकायत में कहा गया है कि श्री जायसवाल की एसपी गोंडा के पद पर 28 फ़रवरी को तैनाती हुई और उन्होंने 01 मार्च को काम संभाला और उन्होंने इसके अगले ही दिन अपने दो आदेशों के जरिये 26 इंस्पेक्टर तथा सब-इंस्पेक्टर का तबादला कर दिया। यह मानवीय रूप से असंभव है कि कोई भी एसपी एक दिन में ही अपने मातहतों और जिले के बारे में इतनी जानकारी हासिल कर ले, जिससे यह स्पष्ट है कि ये ट्रांसफर एसपी द्वारा स्व-विवेक के आधार पर नहीं बल्कि अन्य लोगों के निर्देशों पर किये गए हैं, जो आगामी चुनावों पर गलत प्रभाव डालेंगे।
अतः उन्होंने निष्पक्ष चुनावों के मद्देनज़र इन सभी ट्रांसफरों की समीक्षा करा कर इनके सम्बन्ध में अग्रेतर निर्णय लिए जाने का अनुरोध किया है।
चुनाव आयोग को भेजा गया पत्र
To,
The Chief Election Commissioner
and other Election Commissioners,
The Election Commission of India,
New Delhi
Subject– Transfer of 26 Sub Inspectors/Inspectors by a Superintendent of Police immediately the next date of his joining.
Sir,
I, Dr. Nutan Thakur, a RTI activist, working in the field of transparency and accountability in governance, present before you a case where very clear and blatant misuse of authority has been made by a police officer in an instance which has a very direct bearing on the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections and which thus needs your immediate attention.
The case belongs to district Gonda in Uttar Pradesh. Sri Uday Shankar Jaiswal, IPS, was posted as Superintendent of Police, Gonda through his transfer order dated 28/02/2014. He joined his new assignment on 01/03/2014.
But what is really serious and startling is the fact that immediately after joining his new assignment, on the very next date, Sri Jaiswal transferred 26 Sub Inspectors and Inspectors in Gonda districts. These transfers were made through two separate transfer orders, where transfer order ST-T-3-2014 dated 02/03/2014 transferred 4 Inspectors and 6 Sub Inspectors, including two police outpost in-charges. The other transfer order No ST-T-4-2014 dated 02/03/2014 transferred 7 Inspectors and 9 Sub Inspectors. This transfer order affected officer-in-charges of police stations Kotwali Nagar, Kotwali Dehat, Itiyathok, Motiganj, Chhapia, Kaudiya, Khodade, Kharagupur, Manakapur and Tarabganj. At the same time, this transfer also affected two police outpost in-charges.
What this means is that Sri Jaiswal made such transfers immediately the next date of his joining his new assignment where not were 26 senior police officers of the districts were transferred, 10 police stations and 4 police outposts also got affected.
I need not delve into the issue of importance of the role of Sub Inspectors and Inspectors in the process of elections, particularly as regards the extremely pivotal role played by the officer in charge of police stations.
While it is true that these transfers were made 3 days prior to the actual date of announcement of elections by the Election Commission and the imposition of the Model code of conduct, but at the same time, it can be easily seen that this does not take away the authority, power and duty of the Election Commission as stated in Article 342(1) as regards the superintendence, direction and control of the conduct of the forthcoming elections, which the Hon’ble Supreme Court, through innumerable number of decisions, has made it very clear to be extremely wide ranging.
Thus, from the power bestowed upon the Commission, it is quite apparent that it has an authority and duty to look into the transfers made almost in immediate vicinity of expected date of announcement of polls, especially in light of the fact that the officer issuing the transfer order had joined the district only one day before and thus, naturally cannot be said to be having any requisite personal information, knowledge, assessment and intelligence about the abilities, capabilities, needs, requirements and performance of all these police officers he transferred.
It can also be safely understood that if Sri Jaiswal made such transfer orders only a day after having joined the office, it would have been made solely on the basis of information provided by others. Thus whatever transfer orders were made were made solely in the basis of secondary information because it is humanly impossible for any SP to come to have even reasonable amount of information about the performance of his subordinates within one day of his joining the office and the needs of various police stations, thereby making an assessment and judgement about which police officer will be suitable for which police station. It is also equally true that even at the most fastest pace, any SP will need not less than a fortnight to make such an evaluation as regards the ability and performance of his subordinates and the requirements of the police stations under his charge.
Thus, any such assessment and evaluation made by Sri Jaiswal immediately the next day of his joining shall necessarily be based on secondary information emanating either by his superior officers or from other extraneous sources, including the political entities. If Sri Jaiswal’s decision was based on the intelligence, information and instructions of his superior officers, it will have reasonable sense but if it was based solely and purely on extraneous information, then it will definitely not be considered reasonable in any manner and would be termed completely unacceptable and unreasonable because any transfer orders made by a SP who joined his office only one day ahead, in the last minutes before announcement of date of elections, solely on the instructions/directions/suggestions of political persons is something which will be completely against the spirit of level-playing field as envisaged by the Election Commission and as reinforced again and again by the Hon’ble Supreme Court.
What it means is that despite the fact the above mentioned transfers were made before the date of announcement of elections, but the entire set of events make these transfers extremely suspicious and dubious, which seem to need an immediate assessment on the part of the Election Commission, for the cause of free and fair elections that the Commission is so much adhered to. This is because if these transfer orders are not evaluated and a definite decision made in this regards about whether to continue the transferred officers in their place or to make any reasonable reassessment about them including any further transfers (if required), then the very concept of free and fair elections in Gonda will get defeated because of all the facts and circumstances discussed and enumerated above.
I make it clear that I am not a member of any political party and whatever facts I have presented and whatever prayers I have made are solely for the larger public cause, as a worker in the field of transparency and accountability.
Lt No- NT/ECI/Gonda
dated -09/03/2014
Attached- copy of 2 transfer orders.
Yours
Dr. Nutan Thakur 5/426, Viram Khand, GomtiNagar, Lucknow. #94155-34525
Copy to- 1. Sri Umesh Sinha, Chief Election Officer, Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow
2. Principal Secretary (Home), Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow
3. Director General of Police, Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow
