Odisha-Born Former IPS Officer Basant Rath Takes Political Plunge After Premature Retirement From Service In ‘Public Interest’

Bhubaneswar: A day after the Union Home Ministry’s order on his premature retirement from All India Police Service became public, former IPS officer from Odisha Basant Rath on Thursday registered himself as a BJP activist online and sought blessings of people for what he called an “uphill trek called politics”.

He shared a screenshot of a welcome note from the BJP for his joining the party online on social media and posted a long “Thank You” note on his Facebook page.

The party’s J&K unit has, however, played down the development, saying that that the leadership has taken no decision so far on giving him any responsibility. While stating that anyone can join the saffron party, using the online facility, BJP’s Jammu and Kashmir chief spokesperson Sunil Sethi said: “In BJP, there is no place for indiscipline. He (Rath) has been given premature retirement because of indiscipline.”

Also Read: Controversy, Thy Name Is Basant Rath; Know All About This Odisha-Born IPS Officer

An IGP-rank officer, he earned both accolades and criticism from the people for his efforts to regulate traffic movement as IGP (Traffic), especially in Jammu and Srinagar cities, but was suspended for his social media bickering and for levelling serious allegations against DGP Dilbag Singh.

Less than a fortnight after extending his three-year suspension for “repeated instances of gross misconduct and misbehaviour”, for another six months till January next year, the Ministry handed over premature retirement to 2000-batch officer in “public interest” on August 7.

Notably, Rath had announced his resignation from service in June last year and later expressed his wish to contest election against Omar Abdullah of the National Conference or Mehbooba Mufti of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) on a BJP ticket.

Also Read: Odisha-Born IPS Officer Resigns From Service, Hints At Joining Politics; Check His Posts