Mumbai: Outgoing Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria has indicated his unwillingness to investigate the high-profile Sheena Bora murder case.
The latest development comes days after he was promoted to the rank of DGP (Home Guards) and shifted from his current office.
Maria was personally monitoring the case and had said that he will file the chargesheet in the case before the end of his tenure.
Maria was scheduled to be promoted on September 30. He had, in fact, requested the state government for a transfer to a non-executive post as his elder son Kunal is likely to get married by year end.
After the case was opened in August, Maria had said that he will not let the case to turn into an Arushi case. Maria personally interrogated prime accused Indrani Mukerjea, her husband Peter Mukerjea and others in the Sheena Bora case.
He had also explained that he needed to go to the police station as the accused, especially Indrani Mukerjea, were high profile, not cooperating and speaking in hi-fi English.
Following an uproar over his sudden removal, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) KP Bakshi on Tuesday evening issued an order saying Maria would continue to monitor the investigation despite his transfer out of Mumbai police.
According to Times of India, Maria declined to comment on Bakshi's statement, but a high-ranking IPS officer confirmed that the new director general (home guards and civil defence) had informally communicated to the government his inability to track the case.
Maria was of the view that since a new commissioner had taken over the reins of Mumbai police, it would be wrong for a person of the same rank to monitor the probe.
The state government on Tuesday replaced Maria by another equally fine IPS officer, Javed Ahmed. The Mumbai Police Commissioner's post is equivalent to that of Director General.
