A total of at least Rs 3.82 crore is owed by 35 serving and retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officers to the Maharashtra government as penalty for overstaying at government accommodation despite being transferred from their posts, an RTI has revealed. Sanjay Kumar Baviskar, DIG, State Reserve Police Force in Pune, owes the highest amount.
Among the officers are two former Mumbai Police Commissioners, one of whom is also a two-time BJP MP, The Indian Express reported. The fines have been calculated up to the end of March 2021.
In the list are names of four serving Commissioners of Police, two Additional Directors-General and a former Director-General of Police-rank officer.
According to the rules of government services, IPS officers must vacate their government accommodation after they have been transferred within a specified time, otherwise, they will be fined.
The RTI revealed that over Rs 20 lakh each is owed by the top defaulters.
Meanwhile, Baviskar has been fined Rs 75.77 lakh for continuing to occupy a 1,046-sq-foot apartment in Mumbai until October 2020, even though he had been transferred in mid-2011.
While Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Dr Mahesh Patil (Crime Branch) owes Rs 33.77 lakh, retired IPS officers Surinder Kumar and Dhananjay Kamlakar owe Rs 25.78 lakh and Rs 22.82 lakh respectively to the government.
Patil overstayed in a 1,000-sq-foot apartment in Mumbai until June 2019, despite being transferred from the post of DCP (Zone V), Mumbai, as Superintendent of Police, Thane (Rural), in May 2016.
“My son was studying in Class 10 so we were unable to vacate the apartment. From Mumbai I was posted to departments that do not provide accommodation,” said Patil without specify the year this happened.
On the other hand, SP (Anti-Corruption Bureau) Punjabrao Ugale owes Rs 20.77 lakh, and retired IPS officer Bipin Bihari, Rs 20.29 lakh.
Ex-Mumbai Police Commissioner Dhananjay Jadhav owed the government Rs 20.16 lakh upto March 31. He passed away on March 30 this year.
Dr Satya Pal Singh, another former Mumbai Police Commissioner who won the Lok Sabha election from Baghpat on a BJP ticket in 2014 and 2019, was fined Rs 12.94 lakh.
“I never overstayed in any government quarters. It was perhaps some mistake on the part of department which might have been calculated when I was posted outside Mumbai. I stayed in Police Quarters which was free and not in Government general pool. The license fees were waived off when Shri R R Patil was the Home Minister. It should be in Home Department records,” Singh told the Indian Express.
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