Jammu & Kashmir

DGP Dilbag Singh responsible if anything happens to me, says Basant Rath

Basant Rath. [File Photo]

Srinagar: Indian Police Officer (IPS) of the rank of Inspector General of police, Basant Rath who opted for voluntary retirement from services on Tuesday alleged that JK’s Director General of Police Dilbag Singh would be responsible if anything bad happens to him.

“Dear friends, if anything bad happens to my reputation and safety, Dilbag Singh (son of Balbir Singh), the IPS officer who has been the police chief in J and K  since 31.10.2018 (Present Pay Scale – Level – 17), will be responsible,” Basant Rath wrote on Twitter.

On Sunday, Rath announced his resignation on social media, saying he wished to join electoral politics in Jammu and Kashmir.

A controversial police officer, who has several admirers in Kashmir Valley, posted his resignation letter on social media. “I wish to resign from the Indian Police Service in order to be able to participate in electoral politics.

Please consider this letter as my request for resignation/voluntary retirement and process it accordingly,” Rath said in a letter written to J&K Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta.

Rath forwarded copy of the June 25 resignation letter to J&K DGP Dilbagh Singh and Commandant General Home Guards and Civil Defence and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) Hemant Kumar Lohia. Rath is currently posted in Home Guards and Civil Defence.

Earlier, hours before he posted his resignation letter, he said: “If I ever join a political party, it WILL be BJP. If I ever contest an election, it WILL be from Kashmir. If I ever join politics, it WILL be before March 6, 2024″

In his columns and tweets in the past, the IPS officer of 2000 batch had many times shown his dislike for the BJP’s “communal politics”.

Popular in the Valley, especially among the youth – he distributed free books for competitive exams – Rath is disliked by many in the administration. His opinion pieces and his Kashmir-centric poetry, which included a poem on the 1990 Gawkadal incident, in which 50 people were killed when paramilitary personnel opened fire on civilians, also did not go well with many officials both in Delhi and in J&K as well.

In July 2020, Rath was involved in a spat with DGP Dilbagh Singh. He filed a complaint with a police station in Jammu against DGP Singh, saying that he “fears for his life, liberty and bald head”.

The 50-year-old Rath has served in J&K in several capacities, including IGP Traffic, a stint that earned him bouquets and brickbats.

He even took on his seniors in the department. “My dear senior who thinks I am all gas on Facebook and Twitter and no guts. Please ask your PSOs to drive their bikes without wearing helmets. I’ll ruin their day. And yours. I don’t think I love you,” he had posted on social media when he was IGP Traffic.

Hailing from Odisha, Rath did his Master’s in Sociology from the Jawaharlal Nehru University before joining the IPS. In 2018, he was promoted to IGP.

 

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