CRPF assistant commandant seeks apology from Jharkhand police for defamation

An assistant commandment rank officer of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has sent a legal notice to Jharkhand Police's senior officials and sought an unconditional public apology for allegedly concealing the truth, defamation and mental harassment.

Rahul Solanki who is deployed as the Assistant Commandant in 222 battalion claimed that senior officials of Jharkhand, including Inspector General Navin Kumar Singh, IPS Jharkhand Police, gave a false report to media houses without investigating the matter.

Advocate Abhinav Garg, who is representing Solanki, has sought a public apology in writing from the officials for defamation, mental harassment, compromising the safety and security of CRPF jawans, causing loss to the government exchequer and giving false information to the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Commandant Solanki had earlier claimed that the troops after finishing their duty during the Jharkhand elections on December 7 were not even provided with any local assistance and were given "animal-like treatment" by the civil authorities.

There was no arrangement for drinking and cooking water and other basic necessities. The civil authorities affected "the dignity and honour" of the jawans when they reached Ranchi on Sunday after covering a distance of 200 km, including 17 km on foot.

Solanki further stated that as the commanding officer, it was his duty to pacify his jawans and to inform the higher authorities about the ill-treatment meted out to them.

However, on December 10, 2019, Solanki's duty was changed and he was directed to report back at unit Head-Quarter [Bijapur in Chhattisgarh] with immediate effect. He was asked to hand over the charge to an Inspector rank subordinate officer and the next day, a news report was published with headline "CRPF officer complaining of chaos was removed from election duty".

The CRPF official further alleged that the Inspector General concealed the facts about the incident and provided false information to media houses about the investigation.

He further stated that senior officials of Jharkhand police jeopardised the security of 80 CRPF Jawans by disclosing their commander's personal details like his name and hotel details, including his room number.

The disclosure of these details not only violated the right to privacy of an individual but was also highly irrelevant with the matter in issue, he claimed.