Mandya netas win; Govt shunts out upright officer

Shyam Sundar Vattam/NT
In what could come as a dampener for honest officers with a ‘no-nonsense’ approach, the state government has ‘caved in’ to the pressure from a strong political lobby in Mandya and transferred  Dr Suman D Pennekar as Superintendent of Police, Uttara Kannada district, without allowing her to take charge of the Mandya SP’s post.

Known as an upright IPS officer of the 2013 batch, Dr Suman was transferred as SP of Mandya ten days ago, replacing Dr Ashwini, who got embroiled in a controversy pertaining to cutting of several trees at her official residence without the forest department’s permission. But local politicians raised a hue and cry over the posting of Dr Suman, who was then serving as Deputy Director, Karnataka Police Academy, Mysuru, as Mandya SP, and pressured the government to transfer her elsewhere. The top brass of the home department then instructed her to ‘wait’ and not to take charge of the Mandya SP post till further orders.

While Dr Ashwini had handed over charge to the Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) and left, Dr Pennekar had to wait for orders from the department on whether to take charge or not.  In the meantime,  social media mocked the government saying the post of Mandya SP was up for grabs and it was being ‘auctioned’ on the lines of a few prime police stations in Bengaluru and other cities.  Mandya city was without a SP for nearly a week, sending a clear message that something was happening at the government level.

As expected, a modified transfer list has now been released posting Dr Pennekar as SP, Uttara Kannada district. In her place, N.Yatish, SP of Gadag, has been posted in Mandya. He ha also been given additional charge of Deputy Director, Karnataka Police Academy.
Dr Pennekar has been an upright police officer who sticks to the police manual and does not succumb to political pressure. For this reason, she had served in a non-executive post. But such officers are not welcome in a district like Mandya where officers who fail to obey their political bosses are shown the door.