Top Maharashtra prison official relieved of additional charges as his name crops up in Hagawane case

    Mumbai, May 30 (PTI) Senior Maharashtra police officer Jalindar Supekar, whose name had cropped up in the Vaishnavi Hagawane dowry harassment-suicide case, has been relieved of additional responsibilities as deputy inspector general of prisons of Nashik, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Nagpur divisions.
    Supekar was the Special Inspector General of Police in the Maharashtra Prisons Department, headquartered in Pune. He also held the additional charge as DIG of these three divisions.
    The Maharashtra home department said in an order on Thursday that the post of DIG in the Prisons department is “important” and full of “responsibilities”, and Supekar was being relieved of his additional charges “considering the importance of these posts”.
    Giving additional charge of three posts to an IG rank officer, who is second in command after the Additional Director General of Police (ADG), was not “appropriate” as per administrative requirements, it added.
    The additional charge of Deputy Inspector General of Prisons, Nagpur Division, has been handed over to Swati Sathe, who is the DIG Prisons, Pune, the order said.
    Aruna Mugutrao, Superintendent of Nashik Road Central Prison, has been given the additional charge of DIG Prisons of the Nashik Division, while Vaibhav Aage, Superintendent of the Nagpur Central Prison, has been given the additional charge of the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Division, the order said.
    Incidentally, the state government had asked the ADG Prisons to probe allegations that Supekar was trying to shield the accused in the Vaishnavi Hagawane dowry harassment and suicide case.
    Vaishnavi Hagawane allegedly committed suicide in Pune’s Bavdhan area on May 16, with her kin alleging that her in-laws and others had tortured her for dowry. Her father-in-law Rajendra Hagawane was subsequently expelled from the NCP after the case hit national headlines.
    Supekar is the uncle of Vaishnavi’s husband Shashank.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)