Guwahati: The Assam police on Sunday suspended a deputy commissioner of police for allegedly messing up with the security arrangement of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi during his visit to Kamakhya temple.
The police on Sunday said that the DCP, western range, Bhanwar Lal Meena has been placed under suspension with immediate effect under Rule 3(1) of the All-India Services (Disciple and Appeal) Rules, 1969.
The state home department in its order said that there were adequate lapses in the security arrangements for Mr Gogoi at Kamakhya Temple, causing inconvenience to the CJI.
“During the period of this order in force, the headquarters of Bhanwar Lal Meena shall be Assam police headquarters and not leave headquarters without obtaining permission from the competent authority,” the order stated.
CJI Gogoi and his wife had visited Guwahati on October 17, coinciding with the visit of BJP president Amit Shah. The CJI, who was on a visit with his wife, expressed his displeasure at the arrangements made by police authorities.
Meanwhile, incident has snowballed into a political controversy with leader of the Opposition and senior Congress leader Debabrata Saikia attributing the incident to the “sycophancy” of the BJP government to please political leaders of the party.
Mr Saikia, in a written statement, said, “In term of protocol, the CJI has precedence over any political personalities and as per norms, a commissioner-level officer should have been deputed to coordinate the visit of the CJI. This was not done because taking the cue from the state government, the officers were busy bending over backwards to please their political masters at the Centre.”
In an obvious reference that officers were busy in managing the visit of the BJP president, Mr Saikia said, “The prestige of the people of Assam has been dented by the fact that in his home state, the CJI was kept waiting outside the temple while political personalities were being entertained inside the temple. The security and protocol lapse merely highlights the larger malaise of breakdown of the administrative machinery in Assam.”
