Senior IPS officer Alok Kumar, who had approached the Central Administrative Tribunal seeking justice for his untimely transfer, withdrew his case on Friday.
Mr. Kumar served as city police commissioner for 45 days before he was shunted out by the BJP government, replacing him with Bhaskar Rao.
Challenging the transfer, Mr. Alok Kumar had approached CAT contesting his abrupt transfer citing provisions of the Karnataka Police Act, 1963, Clause 20-F which guaranteed a minimum tenure of one year for the police officers.
CAT had issued notices to the State government and the city police commissioner Bhaskar Rao seeking response.
However, as the hearing came up before the CAT, Mr. Kumar submitted his plea before the tribunal seeking permission to withdraw and application and was granted the same.
The issue of transfer had taken a new twist with leakage of an audio tapes allegedly involving Mr. Rao and a power broker identified as Faraz, lobbying for the city police chief’s post. Mr. Rao ordered the CCB to probe the matter which submitted an interim report to the Director General and Inspector General of police indicting a senior police officer.
Soon, the phone-tapping controversy snowballed into a major controversy as many political leaders accused the previous H.D. Kumaraswamy government of tapping phones of many leaders and police officers.
Sources in the department said that the sudden withdrawal of the case could save the government from major embarrassment, and in return, the probe into phone tapping might be given a burial.
