The industrial town of Katni in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday witnessed mass protests in support of a police officer who was transferred after he unearthed a Rs 500 crore hawala scam involving ruling BJP minister Sanjay Pathak.
Katni district Superintendent of Police, Gourav Tiwari, was transferred to Chhindwara district two days after he summoned a coal merchant for inquiry into the hawala scam having links to the small-scale industry minister. Tiwari is a 2010 batch IPS officer and a graduate from IIT Kanpur
Coal merchant Satish Saravagi and his brother Manish are known as business associates of minister Pathak. Pathak, who himself is a mining baron, had joined BJP in 2014 after quitting Congress. He was a Congress MLA earlier, and his father Satyendra Pathak was a minister in Digvijay Singh government.
Gourav Tiwari
Congress cried foul over the transfer of the officer. “In order to teach the IPS officer a lesson, minister Pathak got the SP transferred from the district,’’ said party state president Arun Yadav.
Gourav Tiwari has barely completed six months in the district since he was transferred from Balaghat.
Earlier, the investigation wing of the Income Tax Department had confiscated 40 bogus account from an Axis Bank branch where money over Rs 500 was found deposited. The police, on report of the IT department, have registered a case under IPC 420, 467, 468 and 471 against the accused. One of the accused Sanjay Tiwari has told police that he was a mere dummy and that he was working on behalf of the minister.
The transfer of SP has evoked massive protests in the district where the police have tightened the grip over mafia and criminals. Katni town on Wednesday observed a bandh to support the SP while protesters sported black bands on their mouth against the alleged high-handedness of minister.
