Sack Maha DGP to ensure fair Assembly polls: Congress tells ECI

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Congress on Tuesday demanded that the Election Commission of India (ECI) should sack the state Director General of Police (DGP) Rashmi Shukla to ensure free and fair Assembly elections.

Describing Shukla as a ‘controversial police officer’, state Congress President Nana Patole has shot off a letter to the ECI claiming that though she had retired in June 2024, the Bharatiya Janata Party-coalition MahaYuti government has given her an illegal extension of two years service till 2026.

He alleged that during Shukla’s controversial tenure with the police department, she had committed many illegal activities and even threatened the leaders of the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) while working as a political campaigner for the BJP.

Born in June 1964 and an IPS officer of the 1988 batch, her tenure ended in June this year, but the MahaYuti government gave her a two-year extension violating the rules, Patole contended.

Besides the illegal extension, Shukla has a history of questionable activities, misusing her position to harass and threaten the Opposition, and her track record so far raises ‘serious concerns about her fairness and honesty’, the Congress chief added.

Patole charged her with filing false cases against the Opposition parties’ top leaders, illegally tapping their phones, with cases lodged against her, but after the MahaYuti came to power, all action against her was stopped.

“She has compromised her integrity, is of a biased nature, misused her official position in the CID, threatened and abused the Opposition functionaries when she was heading the Anti-Corruption Bureau,” said Patole, though there has been no response from the government.

In view of her record, Patole said it would be impossible to conduct free and fair Assembly elections and demanded that she should be removed forthwith to protect the democratic processes.

Patole has sent copies of the ECI letter to the Chief Electoral Officer of Maharashtra and the Chief Secretary, barely days before the state Assembly election schedule is likely to be announced.