Tough cop Kalluri lands in WhatsApp controversy, gets show cause notices

Ritesh Mishra
Hindustan Times
SRP Kalluri

The photograph, captioned ‘Three idiots clean bowled’, circulated on Whatsapp.

The Chhattisgarh director general of police (DGP) served show cause notices to former Bastar inspector general of police (IGP) SRP Kalluri on Saturday for attending a private function in Jagdalpur without intimating his superiors and subsequently circulating a WhatsApp post in this regard.

DGP AN Upadhyay has served three notices to Kalluri, and sought responses for the same in three days.

Though Kalluri was removed from Bastar a month ago and attached to the police headquarters, he attended a private function in Jagdalpur that also featured superintendents of police Indira Kalyan Elesela (of Sukma) and RN Dash (of Jagdalpur) on Thursday evening.

A controversy erupted when local newspapers on Friday quoted Elesela as saying that “manvadhikaar karkartaon ko sadak par kuchal dena chahiye… (human rights activists should be crushed on the roads).”

He also reportedly said that rights activists were “Maoist sympathisers” who should be treated like the extremists they support.

Soon afterwards, the opposition raised the matter in the legislative assembly, spurring chief minister Raman Singh to remove both Elesela and Dash from Bastar. However, the controversy refused to die down. On Friday night, Kalluri posted on Whatsapp a photograph that showed him posing with the two police officers. Its caption read: “Three idiots clean bowled!”

The photograph was widely circulated and reported in the media. Embarrassed by the development, Upadhyay sent the show cause notices to Kalluri, asking why he had attended the Jagdalpur event without intimating the police headquarters and later posted the photograph on WhatsApp.

Kalluri, a controversial figure hailed by many for his tough stand against Bastar’s armed insurgency, has also been accused of violating human rights and sponsoring vigilante groups on several occasions.http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/tough-cop-kalluri-lands-in-another-controversy-gets-show-cause-notices/story-WPF3Bg2okKH6PGoNJh0DsN.html