Much to the embarrassment of the Uttar Pradesh government, the objectionable video of Noida district police chief Vaibhav Krishna that went viral turned out to be authentic, forcing Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to suspend him and order a high level enquiry to save his government from attacks by opposition parties on this issue.
Yogi Adityanath not only suspended Krishna but also shunted out four of the five IPS officers posted as district chiefs following allegations of corruption in postings made against them.
The government spokesman claimed that the action had been initiated under the ‘zero tolerance’ policy of the state government towards corruption.
According to an official communiqué of the state government released on Thursday evening, the chief minister took stern action against Gautam Buddha Nagar SSP Vaibhav Krishna and placed him under suspension after forensic lab in Gujarat submitted its reports on the viral video of his chat with a woman.
Krishna has been suspended for violation of conduct rules.
A departmental inquiry has also been ordered against Krishna. The inquiry has been handed over to Lucknow Zone ADG SN Sabat. He will submit his report as soon as possible.
The forensic lab report confirmed that the video and chat were authentic.
Krishna had claimed that it was a morphed video aimed at maligning his image. He had even lodged a report against unknown persons for making the video viral.
In his FIR, Krishna had alleged that the video was fake and was posted by some IPS officers and journalists to malign his image as he had initiated action against them for their corrupt practices.
The government spokes-man claimed that the forensic investigation revealed that the video was not edited or morphed.
The report was submitted to IG\ADG Meerut Zone, Alok Singh, who was investigating the case. During the investigation, Singh had sent the video to the forensic lab in Gujarat.
Interestingly, while alleging that the video was posted to malign his image, Krishna had held a press conference and leaked a confidential letter he had sent to the government, requesting inquiry into the corrupt practices of some IPS officers and journalists.
Meanwhile, the government release said that under the zero tolerance policy towards corruption, the chief minister took stern action against five IPS officers named in the Vaibhav Krishna’s case by removing them from the post of district incharges. All these five police officers have been removed from field.
The official communiqué said that a three-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) had been constituted under senior IPS officer. DG (Vigilance) Hitesh Chandra Awasthi heads the SIT that has IG (STF) Amitabh Yash and Jal Nigam MS Vikas Gothalwal as members.
The SIT has been asked to complete the investigation within 15 days and action will be taken as soon as the report is received by the government.
The government spokes-man claimed that action at this level had been taken for the first time in the history of the state to send out a strong message.
It may be mentioned here that the Noida SSP, in his letter to the government on November 26, 2019, had accused senior IPS officers and other officers of corruption in transfer and posting.
The officers charged by the Noida SSP are IPS officers Ajay Pal Singh, Sudhir Kumar Singh, Ganesh Saga, Rajiv Narain Mishra and Himanshu Kumar. The other officers are director media in chief secretary’s office, Diwakar Khare, and PCS officers Gulshan Kumar and Rajnish.