Opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday alleged that police officer D. D. Misra, who was sent to a mental health hospital after he termed the Mayawati government ‘most corrupt’, had now been put under house arrest to gag him.
"Ever since the IPS (Indian Police Service) officer has been discharged from hospital, he and his family members are not being allowed to talk to media," Samajwadi Party (SP) spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary told reporters.
The Mayawati government, he said, feared that the officer could expose large-scale financial anomalies in its functioning and had put the officer under house arrest.
"The Mayawati government feels highly insecure ... We believe the officer knows certain secrets that could spell trouble from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government, and therefore is not being allowed to meet the mediapersons," Congress spokesperson Akhilesh Pratap Singh added.
Echoing similar views, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Vijay Bahadur Pathak said: "The government will make every effort to prove that the allegations levelled by the IPS officer are not found true. As a part of this strategy, the police officer is being kept in the confines of his home."
"The government fears the officer could provide certain documents to mediapersons to corroborate his allegations."
Misra, deputy inspector general (DIG) in the state fire service, who had last Friday (Nov 4) labelled the Mayawati government as the "most corrupt regime ever", had been forcibly taken to hospital by authorities the same day itself.
He was diagnosed with "bipolar disorder" and admitted to the geriatric mental health department of the Chhatrapati Sahuji Maharaj Medical University (CSMMU). Misra was discharged from the hospital Tuesday (Nov 8).
Security personnel at Misra's residence in Gomti Nagar did not allow local journalists to meet him or his family.
They claimed that Mishra and his family were not interested in meeting journalists at this point of time.
Misra had made direct accusations not only against top Uttar Pradesh officials but also against Mayawati, whom he blamed for the death of a senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Harminder Raj Singh, who was officially stated to have shot himself in 2010.
The interview was telecast on IBN7 news channel.
The Mayawati government had on Saturday ordered a high-level probe into the allegations even as it labelled him mentally unstable.