UP cop lashes out at Mayawati, govt calls him 'mentally ill'

Caught in a cleft stick over the charges of rampant corruption leveled by a senior Indian Police Service officer, the Mayawati administration on Saturday ordered a high-level probe. DD Misra, deputy inspector general, state fire services pointed towards a scam worth crores of rupees in the fire department.

Ironically, the government continued to label the Misra as mentally unbalanced. "Misra is apparently suffering from Bipolar Effective Disorder," Uttar Pradesh Principal Home Secretary Fateh Bahadur Singh declared at a specially convened press conference in Lucknow.

Misra on Friday openly called the Mayawati government as the "most corrupt regime ever". He even went to the extent of making direct accusations not only against top UP officials but also against the chief minister. He pointedly blamed Mayawati for the death of senior Indian Administrative Service officer Harminder Raj Singh, who allegedly shot himself in 2010.

Shortly, after his interview was aired on a national television news channel, senior officers from the administration reached Misra's office and almost forced him to accompany them. Misra was taken to the Civil Hospital for a medical examination. 

"We have full sympathy with D D Misra because of his mental disorder," Fateh Bahadur said. "Misra's family members have themselves confirmed that he had been behaving abnormally for the past few days." However, in the same vein he went on to add, "the allegations leveled by him are not being taken lightly by us and we have ordered a high-level inquiry. "

Asked if the probe will look into direct accusations made by the officer against ministers and a couple of senior IAS and IPS officers, Fateh Bahadur said, "Even though the officer had committed violation of the Service Conduct Rules by making such a statement before the media, we have decided to ensure that the inquiry covers each and every allegation leveled by him."

While declaring that the inquiry was being entrusted to senior IPS officer Atul, the director general of state vigilance, he went on to add, "the probe would be completed expeditiously." When a scribe sought to know if the probe would also look into the charges leveled by the officer against him too, Singh said, "Of course, and I will also be liable to get punished in case I am found guilty."

Misra's colleagues called him "truly upright and honest". A top police official of the state said on the condition of anonymity, "Misra has worked with me and I never noticed anything abnormal about him. He was however not the compromising sort and would not budge from rules and regulations on account of which he felt he was being harassed."

In his interview to a TV channel on Friday evening, Misra had alleged, "I was not only humiliated and mentally tortured by my superiors, but was also denied legitimate promotions simply because I refused to sign on the dotted line."