Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Tuesday directed the Union government to file its affidavit in response to a petition by IPS officer Abdur Rehman, who is the Lok Sabaha candidate from Dhule of Prakash Ambedkar led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA). Dhule goes to polls on May 20 along with Mumbai and some other districts in Maharashtra. Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government opposed his plea seeking direction to the government to decide expeditiously on his application for Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS).

Rehman had sought VRS in 2019, but the same was not accepted. Following the Central government bringing in the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), he tendered his resignation, which too was rejected. He had authored a book on the plight of Muslims in India since independence. The IPC officer then approached the HC seeking direction to the government to accept his VRS.

Shetty sought two weeks’ time to file the affidavit

Union government’s counsel Ravi Shetty informed the bench that they want to file an affidavit placing some more details on record regarding certain disciplinary proceedings against him. Shetty sought two weeks’ time to file the affidavit. Rehman’s advocate opposed the request saying that there was no chargesheet against him when he applied for VRS and hence the same could not have been rejected.

Shetty said that Rehman was exonerated from an enquiry initiated against him earlier. However, the government has received another complaint alleging that he has married another woman during the subsistence of his first marriage. The complaint was notably filed by Rehman’s father-in-law. Although the complaint was subsequently, the government has learnt about his second marriage which is a serious offence and the same could result in dismissal from service. The bench then granted the Union government two weeks to file its affidavit and kept the matter for hearing on April 18.

Rehman, an Inspector General (IG) rank official, said that he had not been attending office since December 2019 when he was posted as head of the investigation wing of the Maharashtra Human Rights Commission. He was barred from addressing CAA protestors at Aligarh Muslim University in February 2020.