Rajkot: Three senior police officers, including an IPS officer, were suspended on Monday by the Gujarat Home Department after they were found guilty in an alleged police sub-inspector recruitment scam.
A senior Gujarat Home Department official confirmed the development stating that they have put orders related to the same on the official website of the home department.
"2007 batch IPS officer Manoj Ninama, who is currently posted as Commandant of State Reserve Police (SRP), Group-13, Rajkot, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Rajkot, AL Chaudhari, and Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP), Gondal, RD Desai have been suspended," said orders signed by the Joint Secretary of the Home Department Nikhil Bhatt, which have been put up on the Home Department's official website.
All these officers were given various duties related to supervision of physical tests for recruitment of police sub- inspectors conducted in the city on February 16.
It was alleged that two women candidates were favoured by these officers during the physical tests. After that, city Superintendent of Police Gagandeep Gambhir was asked to probe the matter by the Home Department.
One of the women candidates was a constable with the SRP, while another candidate was a physical training teacher.
On February 16, a physical test was conducted at the city -based police headquarters as part of the police sub-inspector recruitment process.
Candidates aspiring to become police sub-inspectors were required to run 1,600 metres within a stipulated time.
However, it was alleged that two woman candidates allegedly entered the race mid-way due to which they finished their test "on time".
It was alleged that though the act was caught on closed circuit television cameras and brought to the attention of junior officers, these police officials, who were deployed at the spot to supervise the test, ignored their misdeed and cleared these two women.
Ninama's suspension order which was issued by the Home
Department, stated that "Ninama has involved himself by favouring two women candidates (one of them was trained under him) and by adopting unscrupulous methods to clear them in physical test. Thus, he committed irregularities in the police sub-inspector recruitment exam".
Similarly, the suspension order issued against Chaudhari, who was the ground in-charge, and Desai, who was deployed to help Ninama, detailed their misconduct during the exam.
Desai's suspension order stated that though irregularities took place in his presence, he deliberately suppressed facts from his seniors and claimed that nothing of the sort had taken place.
Chaudhari's suspension order stated that he asked a junior officer, who noticed the two female candidate's misdeeds, to let it go and forced other officers to clear them.
Ninama is a Gujarat cadre police officer who was promoted to the IPS in 2007.
