Hyderabad, August 26: Senior IPS officer Vivek Dube and his junior colleague Abraham Lincoln were on Tuesday placed under suspension after being held ‘indirectly responsible’ for the death of constable P Muralinath.
Muralinath was found dead under suspicious circumstances in Madhya Pradesh on July 30. A GO issued by the state government said disciplinary proceedings will be initiated against the two officers. Dube, an officer of the 1981 batch, was then chief of Octopus as well as additional DG, logistics and provisions. He was charged with issuing oral instructions to Lincoln, commandant of Special Armed Reserve Police to which Muralinath was attached, to post the constable to the Noida residence of the Dubes in violation of the rules.
Lincoln, of the 1998 batch, was similarly charged with unauthorisedly sending Muralinath outside the state in violation of the rules. Both the officers were directed to stay in Hyderabad till the completion of the disciplinary proceedings and not leave headquarters without the permission of the government.
Muralinath had apparently left the Noida residence of Dubes for Hyderabad on July 29 but was found dead in suspicious circumstances in Jathapura village near Gwalior the next day by the MP police.
Immediately after the death of Muralinath, the state government had ordered an enquiry by a team of officers headed by the chief secretary and also removed Dube from both the charges he was holding. Muralinath was a Dalit and protests from Dalit organisations over the death could also have contributed to the state placing the two officers under suspension.
The IPS fraternity by and large appeared to be incensed with the suspension of two of its officers, an act that has not been seen in recent times. “Why suspend them now. Action need to be taken against them only if the enquiry finds them guilty,” said one official. But the men in the force welcomed the government move.
–Agencies