The superintendent of police (Pune rural), Sandeep Karnik, has sought transfer following the firing incident in Maval taluka that killed three farmers and injured 10 others on August 9.
Karnik submitted an application to the Mumbai-based office of the director general of police on Tuesday evening. Sources in the police said Karnik is seeking transfer to ensure an impartial judicial probe into the incident, announced by the state government.
“In the interest of a fair investigation, he has volunteered to be relieved of the post in Pune rural police,” a police official said.
The top police official has been in the eye of a storm following the police firing on villagers of Rautwadi area when they were protesting on the expressway, bringing the movement of vehicles to a halt for 5 hours.
The villagers were protesting against the underground water pipeline project of Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) to draw water from Pavana dam to meet the drinking water demands of the residents of Pimpri-Chinchwad areas.
Eight policemen, including an inspector and a sub-inspector, were suspended following the incident. The Pune rural police has filed FIRs against 42 local politicians and 1,200 people, and the process of filing chargesheets against them is still on.
Meanwhile, the court of judicial magistrate first class, VD Deshmukh, has deferred till September 5 the hearing of a case filed against Karnik and the officers involved in the incident. A city advocate, Rupali Patil-Thombare, had filed a private complaint on August 20 against them, seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
