Almost a year after he took early retirement, the Gujarat Home Department has issued a fresh showcause notice to former IPS officer Rahul Sharma, who had taken on the previous state government led by the then chief minister Narendra Modi, for departmental “misconduct”.
The notice, according to a Home Department official, was issued on January 12, days before the Central Administrative Tribunal last Friday held that the chargesheet against Sharma for keeping with him crucial CDs in the 2002 riot cases was “tainted by mischief” and “coloured by malice and mala fides”. The tribunal had scrapped the chargesheet.
In the notice, Sharma, now a practising lawyer, has been asked to explain why there should not be any action against him for making “unnecessary” payment of a little over Rs 3000 to his driver and gunman as dearness and travel allowances. The showcause notice, accessed by The Indian Express, has also sought explanation from Sharma over “three months’ delay in payment for using government vehicle for personal trip”.
While, Sharma remained unavailable for comment, a top Home Department official said, “The showcause notice has been issued, but he doesn’t remember the details.”
Additional Chief Secretary, Home, P K Taneja did not comment over the matter.
According to sources, the Home Deportment officials while “going through the files of Sharma” came to a conclusion that in 2012 there have been several instances where he allegedly violated service rules.
In one of the instances, cited as “misconduct” by the government, Sharma while on leave remained in Gandhinagar and kept his official vehicle, the driver and the gunman with him. The government pulled up Sharma for staying in Gandhinagar, despite the fact that he had an official work in Ahmedabad. He was then posted in Rajkot.
The notice stated that for police officers posted in Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad is considered as a link city. But, Sharma was posted in Rajkot and after an official work in Ahmedabad, he stayed on in Gandhinagar. “Thus by travelling from Ahmedabad to Gandhinagar, he misused the government vehicle and burnt fuel unnecessarily,” the notice stated.
Sharma had upset the state government after he deposed before the Nanavati Commission that probed the 2002 riots. In 2004, he had submitted a few CDs, containing all detail records collected during the 2002 post-Godhra riots, before the commission which accepted those as evidence. Since then, he remained sidelined and filed request for early retirement which was accepted by the government on February 28, 2014.