July 2: Assistant Inspector General of Police Yogesh Pratap Singh today reiterated before the Bombay High Court that he was transferred to Nagpur because he knew of a damaging inquiry report against Chief Secretary Dinesh Afzalpurkar.The division bench of Justice A V Sawant and J A Patil today heard Singh's petition in which he has challenged his transfer. The hearing was later adjourned after Singh told the court that he was yet to write to the state government seeking revocation of the transfer order. When asked why had he not yet written to the government, Singh said the affidavits filed by the government and the deputy chief minister, Gopinath Munde, clearly indicated ``that they will not consider my plea favourably.''To this, Advocate General C J Sawant said that even if Singh had requested, he could not have been given any such relief. ``Look at the offensive language used by him in the petition. He does not believe in any government official. Moreover, it is not always possible for the government to accommodate officers at the postings of their choice.'' The judges advised Singh to be ``firm without meaning offence'' in future correspondence with the government.Singh today argued that he was transferred because he had rubbed officials like Afzalpurkar the wrong way during his tenure in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). ``I had proof of very serious irregularities committed by Afzalpurkar. When the latter became the chief secretary, he wanted the case to be closed. No wonder, I was prematurely repatriated back to the police force in March 1996.''Singh said Afzalpurkar suspected his hand behind two public interest petitions filed against him. ``I had nothing to do with these petitions. they had very little information and facts. I knew much more about Afzalpurkar.''Singh said his transfer to Nagpur was an ``unprecedented case'' since the transfer proposal was not put forward by the Director General of Police, as is the normal procedure. ``Since I knew damaging details about Afzalpurkar, they wanted me out of Mumbai. Even the internal correspondence between the government and the DG shows that there was a move to transfer me anywhere in state, except Mumbai.'' Singh also said his transfer was violative of the police manual rules which state that an officer should not be moved before he completed three years of service in one place. Singh has put in only 11 months as AIGP in Mumbai.Singh also cited the government guidelines which state that husband and wife (if both are government employees) should be posted in the same city. Singh's wife is an Indian Postal Service officer. ``She completed her training in November and opted for Mumbai since I was in the city. At that time I didn't know that I was being temporarily posted. The government now claims that I was told about the temporary nature of the posting.''Meanwhile, Advocate M A Rane today requested the division bench to allow him to intervene in public interest. He wanted to place certain documents before the court which were brought to light by Singh. He was, however refused permission to do so.
