Playing Cops Or Robbers

Senior IPS officers of the Haryana cadre have a penchant for getting into trouble. R.K. Sharma, of the '76 batch, is only the latest in a long line of Haryana lawmen turned law-breakers.

A year junior to Sharma, another Haryana IG, Harish Kumar, has been absconding for over a year now. It was in August last year that customs officials stumbled on a Rs 100-crore smuggling scam allegedly perpetrated by the cop, who was then head of the National Crime Records Bureau. They came across 40 containers of nickel, disguised as scrap, to evade customs duty—a smuggling operation that had been under way for several years.

When political pressure didn't work and his anticipatory bail pleas were rejected, Kumar and his accomplices filed complaints against the customs officials with the Delhi police and the National Human Rights Commission. He even tried, unsuccessfully, to move the customs settlement commission for immunity from prosecution. Kumar, who enjoys the patronage of politicians and is said to be worth several hundred crore, hasn't been suspended from service, despite not having shown up for work in the last 11 months.

In fact, when the case was first filed, all Kumar got from the ministry of home affairs was an order transferring him to his parent cadre, to the frustration of the customs department. While the MHA has now issued a chargesheet against him, it has yet to be served on the absconding Kumar.

The most notorious of the erring cops is former Haryana director general of police S.P.S. Rathore, who was accused of molesting a teenager. Ruchika, just 14, subsequently committed suicide in 1993 and her family cited their harassment by Rathore as the reason. While Rathore didn't go to jail, media pressure forced the SBI to register a case of "abetment to suicide" against him. The trial is under way. Another former DGP, Lachman Dass, was arrested in connection with a murder case, after he retired. He spent several months in jail and is undergoing trial.

The former Haryana DG (prisons) Ramesh Sehgal was caught red-handed accepting a bribe from a businessman by the vigilance bureau. The list of Haryana cops who've been jailed for various offences include three SPs, an additional SP, a DSP and an SHO. The charges range from misleading the court to assault and murder.