India News | BJP Terms Jharkhand DGP Appointment Unconstitutional

Ranchi, Feb 6 (PTI) Intensifying its attack on the JMM-led coalition, the BJP on Thursday termed the appointment of Jharkhand DGP Anurag Gupta unconstitutional.

This came a day after the party demanded a CBI probe against Gupta.

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Gupta, who was removed from the post by the Election Commission ahead of the 2024 assembly polls, was reappointed as DGP earlier this week after being made acting top cop by the Hemant Soren government following its electoral win in November 2024.

"The UPSC plays an important role in the appointment of a DGP as it is a constitutional entity authorised by the Supreme Court. But in Jharkhand, the JMM-led dispensation appointed the DGP bypassing the UPSC, which is a violation of the Constitution," the BJP said in a statement.

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State BJP president and former Jharkhand chief minister Babulal Marandi on Wednesday said, "The present JMM-led dispensation is using the police administration as a weapon for its political conspiracies....the Supreme Court had directed that the appointment of the DGP would be from the panel recommended by the UPSC. Yet the Hemant government, bypassing the UPSC, appointed Anurag Gupta as DGP on its own, whose name was not in the UPSC's recommended list....We demand a CBI probe against Gupta."

The ruling JMM, however, dismissed the BJP's demand for a CBI probe as a sign of frustration following their defeat in the Assembly elections. The party said the decision to appoint Gupta as the DGP was made collectively in the cabinet.

The BJP alleged that Gupta's tenure had been controversial and he had been involved in electoral malpractices.

The JMM argued that the decision to appoint Gupta was taken in a cabinet meeting, similar to practices in other states like West Bengal, Odisha, and Uttar Pradesh.

A notification by the department of home, prisons and disaster management earlier this week said, "Anurag Gupta, Director General, Crime Investigation Department, has been given charge of Director General, Police..."

Gupta was removed from the DGP post due to his "history of election-related misconduct' in previous polls," and the Election Commission appointed 1989-batch Jharkhand cadre senior-most IPS officer Ajay Kumar Singh as the top cop on October 21 last year.

The state went to polls in two phases on November 13 and 20, with the JMM-led alliance winning 56 seats in the 81-member Jharkhand assembly, while the BJP-led NDA won 24 constituencies.

Gupta, a 1990-batch IPS officer, was made acting DGP in July last year, replacing Ajay Kumar Singh, a 1989-batch officer.

However, Gupta's appointment sparked controversy, especially within Congress, an ally of the ruling JMM. The party claimed it was not consulted about the decision.

"We are not aware of why Anurag Gupta was made the new DGP and Singh was removed. There has been no discussion about it in the coordination committee. At least alliance partners should have been informed about such a major decision," then state Congress president Rajesh Thakur had said.

Singh was appointed as DGP in February 2023 after the retirement of his predecessor, Neeraj Sinha.

In January 2023, the Supreme Court had disposed of a contempt petition against the Jharkhand government and former police chief Neeraj Sinha, who was accused of holding the DGP position after his retirement on January 31, 2022.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)