The Government of India has sacked two Indian Police Service (IPS) officers in Chhattisgarh for non-performance, a Home Ministry official said. A M Juri, who belonged to the 2000-batch of the Indian Police Service, and K C Agrawal, who joined the IPS in 2002, were removed following a recommendation of the Chhattisgarh government as they were found to be "dead wood", the official said.
The order removing them was issued by the home ministry yesterday, after an approval of the Appointments Committee of Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The performance of both the DIG-rank officers were reviewed after completion of their 15 years of service in the IPS and both of them were found unfit to continue in the service, the official said.
Juri, who joined the state police service in 1983, was promoted to the IPS in 2000, while Agrawal joined the state police service in 1985 and was promoted to IPS in 2002. They were removed as per the All India Services Rules- 1958 "in the public interest" after extensive review of the service performance of the two officers, who have completed 15 years of qualifying service.
"Performance review of IPS officers was conducted to weed out dead wood," the officer said.
Performance review of an all-India service officer is conducted twice- first after the completion of 15 years of qualifying service, and then after 25 years.
According to the service rules, the Central Government may, in consultation with the state government concerned, require a member of the service to retire in public interest, after giving at least three-month notice in writing or as many month's pay and allowances in lieu of such notice.
Another home ministry official said there were complaints of alleged misconduct by the two officers. Juri is accused of being married to two women while Agrawal is an accused in a coal theft case.
In January, Mayank Sheel Chohan, a 1998-batch Union Territory cadre officer, and Raj Kumar Dewangan, a-1992 batch Chhattisgarh cadre officer, were removed from the service on similar grounds.
