Cop dubbed unstable after anti-Mayawati remarks, probe ordered

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A day after a senior police official - called 'upright and honest' by his colleagues - levelled serious corruption charges against it, the Mayawati government on Saturday ordered a high-level probe into the allegations even as it labelled him mentally unstable.

D.D. Misra, deputy inspector general (DIG) in the state fire services, had on Friday openly blasted the Mayawati government as the 'most corrupt regime ever'. He was soon forcibly taken to hospital by the authorities.

Misra made direct accusations not only against top Uttar Pradesh officials but also against Mayawati, whom he blamed pointedly for the death of a senior IAS officer, Harminder Raj Singh, who was officially stated to have shot himself in 2010.

The interview was flashed on a popular national TV channel, IBN7. Following the telecast of the interview, the administration decided to get him bodily lifted from his office, where he was sitting in full uniform, and admit him in the medical university here.

The state government labelled Misra as mentally unbalanced. "Misra is apparently suffering from Bipolar Effective Disorder," state principal home secretary Fateh Bahadur Singh declared at a specially convened press conference here on Saturday.

"We have full sympathy with D.D. Misra because of the mental disorder," the principal home secretary said. He claimed, "Misra's family members had themselves confirmed that he had been behaving abnormally for the past few days."

He added, "The allegations levelled by him are not being taken lightly by us and we have ordered a high-level inquiry."

Asked if the probe will look into direct accusations made by the officer against ministers and a couple of senior IAS and IPS officers, Fateh Bahadur shot back, "Even though the officer had committed violation of the Service Conduct Rules by making such a statement before the media, we have decided to ensure that the inquiry covers each and every allegation levelled by the officer."

He said that the inquiry was being entrusted to senior IPS officer Atul, the director general of state vigilance, and added, "the probe would be completed expeditiously."

When a scribe sought to know if the probe would also look into the charges levelled by the officer against him, Fateh Bahadur said, "Of course; and I will also be liable to get punished in case I am found guilty."

Misra's colleagues rated him as 'truly upright and honest'.

A top police official of the state said on condition of anonymity, "Misra has worked with me and I never noticed anything abnormal about him. He was, however, not the compromising types and would not budge from rules and regulations on account of which he felt he was being harassed."

In his interview to a TV channel Friday evening, Misra had alleged, "I was not only humiliated and mentally tortured by my superiors, but was also denied legitimate promotions simply because I refused to sign on the dotted line."