Ishrat Jahan

NEW DELHI: Senior IPS officer Satish Verma, who was part of Special Investigation Team (SIT) that probed the Ishrat Jahan encounter case and indicted senior officers of Intelligence Bureau and Gujarat police for the “cold-blooded murders”, has been served a show cause notice for “unauthorised absence” from duty as chief vigiliance officer of North Eastern Electrical Power Corporation (NEEPCO) . TOI has learnt that Verma was found to have spent more than half of the days since joining NEEPCO in August 2014 “away from the station” and on “long, unexplained tours”.

An officer of the home ministry, which sent him the notice last week and sought his reply within 10 days, said Verma was found to be away from the “station” -- NEEPCO premises in Shillong -- for a cumulative 250-300 days during the 20 months since his posting there. “He would keep travelling to various places including Delhi. As CVO is a self-approving authority for outstation travel, he would make several official, outstation trips. However, he would rarely file reports on these “official trips”, as required of a CVO, alleged the officer.

Based on feedback from NEEPCO, which comes under power ministry, the home ministry, which is the cadre controlling authority for IPS officers, initiated the show-cause notice against him last week. A charge memo was attached with the notice, detailing the allegations against him.

After receiving Verma’s reply, the deadline for which expires in 2-3 days, the home ministry is expected to set up an inquiry against him. However, as service rules require an officer to be suspended only where he or she can influence the proceedings, Verma is unlikely to be suspended during pendency of the inquiry.

If the charges against him are proven during the inquiry, which may well extend over 6 months or more, he may face commensurate action to be decided in consultation with UPSC. This could be either loss of increments, which could be cumulative, or downgrading of post/grade.

Meanwhile, a parallel move is on to initiate action against Verma for giving media interviews in February this year, defending his controversial stint as SIT chief, without keeping his seniors in the loop.

NEEPCO CMD P C Pankaj had written to power secretary Pradeep Kumar Pujari on March 3 seeking disciplinary proceedings against Verma for giving interviews to both print and electronic media in violation of service rules that require officers to address their grievances and objections strictly to their senior/superior within the department/ministry concerned.

However, when the file reached the home ministry, it returned the same to the power ministry, asking it to seek Verma's comments and get the file approved by the power minister, as required by service rules, before disciplinary proceedings can be considered.

“We have not heard from the power ministry yet,” said a home ministry officer.

