There were other charges too,says letter to State police chief

In a major embarrassment for the State police, a superintendent rank officer on a mid-career training programme with the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (NPA), was not awarded the course completion certificate due to his alleged ‘misconduct, gross indiscipline and insubordination’.

Abhishek Goyal, a 2005 batch IPS officer, is charged with bunking classes, not wearing his uniform and taking his family with him during his foreign exposure visit to Australia from November 29 to December 4 during phase III of the programme, says a letter from the NPA, a copy of which is with The Hindu .

The faculty has written to Om Prakash, DG&IGP, Karnataka, seeking disciplinary action against the officer.

Not just that, the letter said the Academy had framed a draft charge sheet against the officer for the penalty to be recovered from the officer, irrespective of the outcome of the departmental inquiry.

The NPA has said that if the expense — Rs. 62,393 — is not refunded within 30 days of receipt of the letter, it may become difficult to accept any further nominations for the Mid Career Training programme from the Karnataka cadre.

The mid-career training conducted by NPA, Hyderabad is mandatory for IPS officers.

The charges

The letter said that on the first day, Mr. Goyal turned up at the venue in civil wear to which S. Raveendran, the Academy faculty, objected.

Mr. Goyal returned in uniform, but missed the first half of the day’s session. A show cause notice was issued to him.

The letter further states that on the second day of training, Mr. Goyal ‘forcefully brought his family on the bus from Gold Coast in spite of clear instructions that families would not be allowed to travel on the same bus due to insurance related instructions’.

On the third day, “Mr. Goyal made an irresponsible request to exempt him from the final leg of the programme in Melbourne, but the faculty co-ordinator categorically informed the officer that no exemption shall be granted. In spite of this, he did not attend the last leg programme at Melbourne, missing his flight and staying back in Brisbane,” the letter said.

The letter further states that though the officer was warned repeatedly by the faculty, the officer did not mend his ways and ‘showed gross indiscipline and insubordination, vitiating the training atmosphere bringing disrepute to both the Academy and IPS fraternity’.