Police officer who secretly filmed Hasan Ali Khan suspended

The Maharashtra government today announced suspension of a senior IPS officer, who allegedly secretly filmed the interrogation of Hasan Ali Khan, facing massive money-laundering charges, and leaked 'doctored' CDs, apparently to malign the government.

Home minister RR Patil told the state assembly that Ashok Deshbhratar, deputy commissioner of police (Government Railway Police), had been placed under suspension and a departmental inquiry had been ordered against him, ending the suspense over the government's action against him.

Speculation was rife since yesterday that the officer had been placed under suspension.

Patil said action had been taken after an inquiry by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) into the CD episode recommended that the officer be sacked from the force under Article 311 of the Constitution and a criminal case be filed against him under section 500 (defamation) and 504 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace) of the Indian Penal Code and section 3 of Incitement to Disaffection Act 1922.

In the CD, the minister said, Khan was shown boasting of his links with top Congress and NCP politicians and how the decision to appoint Hasan Gafoor as Mumbai police commissioner was taken at a meeting in a suburban five-star hotel.

"It has been proved in the [CID] investigation that the police officer had doctored the CD with an intention to malign the government.  He did not pass on the information about his secret interrogation to his superiors which proves his ulterior motive," Patil said.

Patil said that though the CID had recommended Deshbhratar's dismissal, the government had only decided to suspend him and order a departmental inquiry to uphold the principle of natural justice. "We want to enable him to put forward his statement in the
matter," he said.

The minister said the voice in the CD was that of Deshbhratar, but he was not seen in the footage, which was shot with a pen-mounted spy camera.

Patil rejected the claim made in the CD that he, Congress president Sonia Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel, and former chief minister Vilas Deshmukh met in Khan's presence at a five-star hotel in suburban Mumbai to decide on Gafoor's appointment as police commissioner.

He said the hotel in question had been closed down in 2005 and parts of the premises were rented out for marriages.

"The date mentioned in the CD [of the meeting] was the day of the wedding of the daughter of [builder] Yusuf Lakdawala. Nobody mentioned in the CD was present there, including Hasan Ali."

The minister said Deshbhratar had interrogated Khan several times between December 15 and 23, 2008, when the latter was arrested in a fake passport case in Mumbai. "But he never shared the information with his superiors or gave any directions to his juniors in the case."

Patil said Deshbhratar did not interrogate Khan regarding charges for which he had been arrested but asked unrelated questions.

He also alleged that Deshbhratar had demanded Rs1 crore from Yusuf Lakdawala to give good treatment to Hasan Ali Khan in custody.

Patil rubbished the charge levelled by BJP member Devendra Phadanvis that the officer was suspended because he sought permission to intervene in the Hasan Ali Khan case in the Supreme Court.

Phadanvis said the officer was suspended on March 19 after he sought permission on March 15 to furnish information against Khan.

Patil said the committee headed by the chief secretary had cleared Deshbhratar for promotion, but it was decided to keep the promotion on hold pending completion of the CID's inquiry.

To this, Phadanvis wondered why he was cleared for promotion when such a serious allegation was pending against the officer.

The MLA also wanted to know why the government did not initiate any action against the officer earlier if it knew he had demanded money from Lakdawala.

The house had to be adjourned twice amid uproar over the issue: for the first time for 10 minutes, when opposition members rejected Patil's statement, and again for 30 minutes, when leader of the opposition Eknath Khadse raised the issue of a newspaper report that three former chief ministers and bureacrats of the state had desposited funds in foreign banks through Hasan Ali Khan.

Khadse said the report had been submitted to the Supreme Court by the Enforcement Directorate.