Controversy broke out after a senior Gujarat cadre IPS officer was allegedly found keeping his juniors, including one PSI, 12 ASIs and four drivers, in confinement in the garage of his official bungalow at a police academy near State capital Gandhinagar only because he did not receive newspaper.
The Gujarat Government on Thursday ordered a departmental enquiry against Vijoy and asked him to proceed on leave for an indefinite period following grave charge of keeping 17 of his subordinate policemen locked inside the garage of his bungalow. The Government has asked Vijoy to go on leave till the departmental enquiry gets over. ADGP V K Mall has been given the additional charge of the technical and communication department.
Sources in the State police said that additional DG (Technical Services) Vipul Vijoy kept his juniors for more than 12 hours in a garage where no electricity or water supply facilities were available. “They would have had to spend more time, if they couldn’t manage to pass a message,” said a source in Karai Police Academy, situated on the outskirts of Gandhinagar.
Explaining the reason for confinement, the highly placed source said that Vijoy did not receive newspaper at his official bungalow situated at the Karai academy campus. In order to teach them a lesson, he ordered his juniors to confine themselves in the garage at the instance of his wife . Reacting on the alleged controversial incident PK Taneja, ACS (Home), said that he received complaints from two policemen alleging that Vijoy kept them in captivity.
After the illegally confined policemen were freed on the intervention of State Director General of Police PC Thakur, the ADGP suspended sub-inspector PS Sachdev on the charge of insubordination and dereliction of duty. It was Sachdev who had had managed to send out a message to the State control room about the policemen’s ordeal of being locked inside the ADGP’s garage without water and food for more than 16 hours. The sub-inspector, who had captured photographs and videos of the garage in which he and other 16 policemen were locked, presented these as proof of the ill-treatment at the hands of the IPS officer and his wife.
Vijoy, a 1983 Gujarat cadre IPS, who heads technical and communication department, leveled counter-allegation against the policemen saying they neglected their duty and so he had transferred them to do the work of orderlies at his residence.