KATHMANDU, April 25: Chief of Metropolitan Traffic Police Division (MTPD) Ganesh Rai has claimed that millionaires peeved by the road expansion drive, night entrepreneurs hit by stringent checkings against drink-driving and rivals within the police organization have colluded in a recent smear campaign against him.
Calling a press conference at MTPD premises six days after police headquarters initiated investigations and raided MTPD and units under it, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Rai claimed that the conspiracy against him was a panic reaction to the success of the traffic police.
Rai, who called his junior officers for a secret meeting Tuesday immediately after returning from a private visit to India, said fellow officers in the police organization initiated the defamatory campaign, taking advantage of regular monitoring by headquarters.
Rai reportedly claimed during the secret meeting Tuesday that Brahmin officers inside the organization had targeted him. “The bahuns have attacked me. This is not an attack on me alone but on the whole division and we should all be united to face them,” an officer who attended the secret meeting quoted him as saying. Rai also held discussions with officers under him on Wednesday and held the press conference in the afternoon following those discussions.
Pleading innocence to a corruption charge, Rai expressed dissatisfaction with the monitoring by headquarters when he was outside the country. He claimed that no fake bills or papers were found in the course of the monitoring.
“Others have built themselves mansions, I don´t even own a house”
To prove his integrity, he pointed out that he stays at a relative´s house for lack of a house of his own. “I have been in this job for 26 years and I don´t own a house in Kathmandu. But officers senior and junior to me have built themselves mansions,” he stated and urged media to investigate the income sources of the owners of such palatial homes. He said that he was ready to leave the police service if anyone furnished evidence of institutionl corruption at MTPD. “The individual who indulges in corruption should be held responsible for personal corruption,” he fumed when asked if he should not be held accountable as chief for the corruption committed by others at MTPD. He added that MTPD can initiate its own investigations any time and punish the guilty.
“Documents have not been seized"
During the press conference, Rai also claimed that the monitoring team did not take away any documents. But members of the monitoring team were sorting documents after taking control of the financial administration section on the eastern side of the second floor at the MTPD building, even as he was claiming that no documents were taken under control.
He claimed that Inspector Genral of Police (IGP) Rabindra Pratap Shah told him during their meeting Wednesday morning not to take the monitoring amiss. “IGP Sir said that traffic offices across the country would be monitored and not just MTPD,” he added.
“No irregularities in revenue”
Making public the revenue details of his eight months in the present job, he said Rs 73.7 million was generated in the current fiscal year compared to last fiscal year´s Rs 34.9 million, much of it due to action against drink-driving and driving without seat-belts. “Records show that revnue generation has increased significantly during the period. How would revenue have increased if there were irregularities?” he questioned.
Rai stated that the negative campaign has futher energized MTPD and vowed to continue his campaigns with more vigor still.
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