The Haryana police department on Wednesday issued orders for "immediate compliance" on Home Minister Anil Vij's instruction to suspend 372 Investigating Officers across the state for alleged inadequate action in FIRs pending for over a year.
On Wednesday, Vij spoke with the state's Director General of Police Shatrujeet Kapur, directing him to immediately act on his instructions to suspend the IOs on Monday, sources said.
Vij told the DGP that there should be no further delay in the matter, sources said.
Hours later, the office of Additional Director General of Police (Crime) forwarded the matter for "immediate compliance" to concerned Commissioners of Police of Gurugram, Faridabad, Panchkula and Sonipat and Superintendents of Police of Ambala, Yamunanagar, Karnal, Panipat, Hisar, Sirsa, Jind, Rewari and Rohtak districts.
The concerned officers have been also been directed by ADGP (Crime) to also ensure that a compliance report is submitted to his office.
During his telephonic conversation on Wednesday, Vij told the DGP to forward the matter to the concerned officers for suspension, and said he will take action in case of further non-compliance.
In a letter addressed to the Director General of Police on Monday, Vij gave instructions to suspend 372 IOs across various districts of the state.
Vij had also asked for cases pending for over a year to be transferred to respective deputy superintendents of police for final disposal within a month, failing which, action should be taken against those officers also,. he had said.
In a written communication to DGP earlier, Vij had said that he had asked for early disposal of the FIRs registered in the state many times.
"I asked many times for early disposal of the FIRs registered in the state. Last month, I ordered that explanation be sought from all IOs who have not finalised/disposed of the FIRs in a year,” Vij said in the letter.
The home minister said that the number of such cases is above 3,000, which he said was “very high”.
"I am pained to know that despite my instruction, still 372 IOs are those who have not finally disposed of the cases and reason quoted by them are not satisfactory," he wrote. All these IOs should be put under suspension immediately, he said.
Justifying the unprecedented move to demand the suspension of so many police officials in one go, the home minister said people are being forced to move from pillar to post for action on their complaints, which was a "very serious matter".
Vij said that the police department, earlier in May this year, informed him that there were 3,029 cases that were pending for more than a year.
Among the IOs, 66 IOs are from Sirsa, 60 from Gurugram, 57 from Yamunanagar, 32 from Faridabad, 31 from Karnal, 31 from Rohtak, 30 from Ambala, 24 from Jind, 14 from Hisar, 10 from Panchkula, nine from Sonipat, five from Rewari and three from Panipat.
-With PTI Input
