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New Delhi, Delhi, India
The Centre may take back Kolkata Police chief Rajeev Kumar's medals, the news agency ANI quoted sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs as saying on Thursday.
The current political crisis between the Centre and West Bengal started Sunday after the CBI turned up unannounced at Kumar's home, accusing him of slow-walking the investigations into the Saradha and Rose Valley ponzi schemes.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the CBI's turning up unannounced was a "destruction of the federal structure".
She then announced her "Save the Constitution" dharna.
Kumar had sat in on the dharna with Mamata, which is what the Centre is taking objection to.
MHA Sources: Centre has taken a dim view of serving officers of uniformed forces taking part in dharna. MHA has asked the WB government to take action against the officers who had participated in dharna in Kolkata on 4th February as per All India Services (Conduct) Rules. pic.twitter.com/t9oUaiwOH0
â ANI (@ANI) February 7, 2019
MHA sources: In addition, a number of measures are also being initiated against defaulting officers such as withdrawing medals. Centre may also remove names of delinquent officers from the empanelled list & bar them for a certain period from serving in the central government. https://t.co/ao65ga92T0
â ANI (@ANI) February 7, 2019
The Centre says Kumar sitting in on the dharna was against the All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, which govern the conduct of all central government officers.
The MHA sources said Thursday that similar action may be taken against four other officers who sat in on Mamata's dharna.
The sources added that "Centre may also remove names of delinquent officers from the empanelled list and bar them for a certain period from serving in the central government."
The MHA is the controlling authority of Indian Police Service (IPS) officers. It had already on February 5 asked the West Bengal government to take disciplinary action against Kumar.