This Article is From Mar 06, 2019

Senior Rajasthan Cop Removed Over Alleged Extramarital Affair

Pankaj Kumar Chaudhary, currently serving as the Commandant of Police Training School in Jhalawar was found guilty of grave misconduct, an official order said.

Senior Rajasthan Cop Removed Over Alleged Extramarital Affair

An official order said the police officer is guilty of grave misconduct. (Representational)

Jaipur:

A senior police officer in Rajasthan has been removed from his post by the Ministry of Home Affairs over an alleged extramarital relationship, officials said.

Pankaj Kumar Chaudhary, currently serving as the Commandant of Police Training School in Jhalawar, a city in southeastern Rajasthan, was found guilty of grave misconduct, an official order said.

The order said that the senior officer violated rule 3 (1) of the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968, that states members of the service shall at all times maintain absolute integrity and devotion to duty and shall do nothing which is unbecoming of a member of the service.

Pankaj Kumar Chaudhary told news agency PTI that he had received the dismissal order and would challenge it in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).

In 2016, an enquiry was initiated against the officer on the basis of a complaint from his wife. The state government had forwarded the case to the Ministry of Home Affairs, with a recommendation to impose a suitable penalty on him. The Ministry sought recommendations from the Union Public Services Commission (UPSC), which said he should be removed.

Pankaj Chaudhary got married in 2005 and legally separated from his wife in 2018. During this time, he began a relationship with another woman and had a child with her, the order stated.

The senior police officer from Varanasi had landed in trouble while he was the Superintendent of Police Jaisalmer. He had reopened the history sheet of Congress leader Saleh Mohammad's father, Gazi Fakir, during the Congress rule in Rajasthan.

He has also been accused of not acting in time to control riots while he was posted in Bundi, Rajasthan.

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