President rescues Haryana whistleblower officer

In an unprecedented move, President Pratibha Patil came to the aid of a whistleblower officer of the Haryana government, ordering it to drop a chargesheet filed against him.

The Haryana government hounded Sanjiv Chaturvedi, an Indian Forest Service officer, after he exposed its functionaries violating protection of the Saraswati Wildlife Sanctuary and misuse of the forest department funds for planting trees on the land of a legislator.

The President's order came on the basis of a report of an inquiry committee set up by the Cabinet Secretary to look into the alleged harassment of the officer suspended and charge-sheeted in September 2007 after he objected to the felling of trees and constructions in the sanctuary by the irrigation department without permission from the competent authority.

After Chaturvedi approached the Rashtrapati Bhawan, his suspension was revoked in January 2008 but the Haryana government refused to drop the trumped-up charges against him

The state information commission also held the chargesheet against him wrong and ordered the state government to pay him damages of Rs 10,000.

Even the inquiry committee comprising the wildlife inspector general and a senior official of the environment and forests ministry held that officer Chaturvedi has been indicted for upholding the law and Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh asked the state government to scrap the chargesheet.

The state government, however, remained adamant that ultimately compelled the President to use her authority for quashing the chargesheet.