Gujarat's home department is inquiring into a complaint by policemen.
A senior Gujarat police officer who allegedly kept a group of policemen confined in his garage for over 12 hours has been asked to go on leave till the completion of probe.
The group of more than a dozen policemen alleged that the senior officer, Additional Director General of Police Technical Services Vipul Vijoy, "held them captive" on Wednesday because he wanted to "punish" them. Gujarat's home department is looking into their complaint.
The policemen said Mr Vijoy had summoned a team of 17 personnel, including a sub-inspector and four drivers attached to the technical wing, to his official residence on the outskirts of Gandhinagar early on Wednesday morning, ostensibly for an assignment.
When they arrived, alleged PSI PC Sachade, the senior officer was not home but they were herded by a guard into the garage and told to wait inside for further instructions from the ADGP.
"We were told to just sit in the garage, Mr Vijoy did not come, nobody did. We were not assigned any work, said Mr Sachade, alleging that they were neither served any food or water, nor were they allowed to step out to get some.
After waiting for more than 12 hours for further orders from their senior, the policemen said, they called up the police control room and the local media. A police team rushed to the bungalow and brought them back to DGPs office.
As proof of their misery over hours, the cops shared a video that they shot on a cell-phone while they were inside the garage. On the video, the policemen, many in uniform, are crowded into the small, cluttered room.
Mr Vijoy has denied the allegations and has accused the group of policemen of neglecting their official duties. Last night, he suspended PSI Sachade after charging him with dereliction of duty.
''These staffers are radio operators and there have been several complaints of disruptions of network connectivity at police stations and instead of attending to them they have been ignoring their work," he said.
"I told them they just cannot leave work incomplete and ordered them to come to my residence to operate out of my temporary office. I gave them two walkie-talkies as well. They were not held captive. They were supposed to work there,'' he added.