Within five days after Deputy Commissioner Akram Pasha was transferred, the State government, following a direction from the Election Commission, on Thursday transferred Superintendent of Police A.N. Prakash Gowda.
Chetan Singh Rathor, a 2007 batch IPS officer, has been appointed in his place. Mr. Rathor was Director of Forensic Science Laboratory in Bengaluru. On March 30, Mr. Akram Pasha was transferred and Priyanka Mary Francis was posted as Deputy Commissioner, following an EC direction. Prajwal Revanna, son of Public Works Minister H.D. Revanna, is the JD(S) candidate for the Hassan Lok Sabha seat. Mr. Prakash Gowda said the government had transferred him as per the direction of the EC, but he was not aware of the reasons for the action, he said. Mr. Prakash Gowda was posted to Hassan in September, 2018.
Earlier BJP leaders, in their complaints, had drawn the EC attention to Mr. Prakash Gowda’s “objectionable conduct” as Deputy Superintendent of Police while he was posted at Channapatna during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. He was suspended for not conducting search operations at a house in Channapatna, even after a search warrant was issued by the sub-divisional magistrate, they alleged in the complaint. Mr. Prakash Gowda was said to have told senior officers that he would not search and was ready to face suspension or departmental inquiry.
The then Deputy Commissioner of Ramanagaram, Munish Moudgil, had submitted a report to the EC against the officer, which led to his suspension. However later, Mr. Prakash Gowda, when he was posted as ACP in Mysuru, filed a complaint against 14 top bureaucrats, including the Chief Secretary and Chief Electoral Officer, alleging that they all put pressure on him to conduct searches, against the law, when the owner was not present and later filed a false report leading to his suspension.
It is said that the BJP leaders attached copies of past documents along with the complaints and alleged that the officer had been in favour of JD(S) leaders and sought his transfer.
When asked if the EC sought his reply to any of the complaints, Mr. Prakash Gowda said he was not aware of the complaints nor was he consulted for any reply.
The Chief Minister also said the number of transfers of officials by the EC during these elections was unprecedented. “Deputy commissioners, several superintendents of police have been transferred,” he said, on the day the Superintendent of Police, Hassan, was shifted.
