Chennai: Tamil Nadu’s newly appointed Director General of Police, Sandeep Rai Rathod, is said to have decided to place certain Additional SPs, DSPs and inspectors on a “waiting list” over their alleged association with senior police officers seen as having DMK influence.
According to police sources, since the DMK came to power in 2021, a section of senior officers have been accused of leveraging political clout and holding discussions with field-level officers across the state in connection with election-related work. Those officers are also alleged to have acted on confidential directions and retained key postings.
Complaints on the issue are said to have reached the new DGP. Even after some of the politically influential senior officers were transferred, they allegedly continued to issue instructions beyond their jurisdiction to district SPs and other officers.
Sources said the DGP has barred such interference and instructed officials, including range IGs, not to follow directions issued by such officers. As part of steps to ensure elections are conducted fairly, he is also said to be moving to weed out officers perceived to be aligned with political parties.
As a first step, the list of ASPs, DSPs and inspectors said to be in touch with DMK-backed senior officers is expected to be sent to the Election Commission within two days, police sources added.
