After mid-day exposes Thane Jail SP's corruption racket and abuse of power, Hiralal Jadhav is finally suspended after a sexual harassment charge by woman constable is proven
Hiralal Jadhav
For the second time in a chequered career, Thane Jail SP Hiralal Jadhav has been suspended after one of his juniors complained of sexual harassment. This development comes just a day after mid-day carried a detailed report on the jailer making repeated advances on the 31-year-old despite her objections.
Hiralal Jadhav
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This is the same official, who was nearly shunted out in June after an internal inquiry found him guilty of providing 5-star facilities to the inmates for a sum of Rs 5 lakh, as first reported by this paper in May.
This complaint of sexual harassment was perhaps the final nail in the coffin for SP Hiralal Jadhav, whose tainted career has been closely followed by mid-day in the past year (See box).
On the night of August 31, the woman constable registered a complaint with the Thane police and even turned in WhatsApp messages and audio clips that SP Hiralal Jadhav had sent to her. Although she had asked him not to, Jadhav persisted in sending her poetry and even pictures of himself. He had also asked her to meet him outside the workplace and to go on long drives with him.
In the past, Jadhav had somehow managed to wriggle out trouble despite several complaints against him. This time, however, he knew the matter was serious, so he applied for anticipatory bail the very next day. Meanwhile, an inquiry was initiated by the prisons department under Inspector General (IG) Rajvardhan Sinha, and the report was filed on Thursday evening.
Nailed
Maharashtra Additional Director General of Police (Prison) Bhushan Upadhay confirmed that Jadhav has since been suspended. "We had sent the inquiry report to Additional Chief Secretary (Prisons), Vijay Satbir Singh on Thursday. On Friday, we received an order from him regarding Jadhav's suspension. The allegations were serious and found to be true.
Accordingly, action was taken against him," said Upadhay, adding that the additional charge of Thane Central Jail will taken over by Deputy Superintendent, VB Vayachal. A police official from Thane Nagar police station said, "We have recorded statements of four constables at the jail who witnessed the sexual harassment incident. Investigations are ongoing."
Not the first time
Interestingly, Jadhav had previously been suspended for 18 months because of his inappropriate behaviour towards women subordinates. In 2013, Jadhav was the principal of the Yerawada Jail Officers Training Centre when 13 women recruits who were training under him lodged a complaint against him. He was found guilty of using abusive language and crude gestures. The then additional director general of police, prison, Meeran Borwankar confirmed that he had been suspended for 18 months.
In fact, she had submitted a confidential report that clearly stated he could not be trusted around women. "The confidential report submitted by Borwankar clearly stated that Jadhav should not be posted at any place with women staffers.
In Thane Central Jail, there were more than 30 women staffers, so the question is, how was he posted there? He used to tell the staff that he had been given charge as the prison superintendent because he had greased the palms of higher-ups in the jail and Mantralaya with Rs 25 lakh. He claimed that he could recover this money in bribes from prison inmates," said sources from the prison.
In fact, mid-day had also reported on Jadhav's corrupt practices in jail, where he would charge lakhs of rupees from inmates and, in exchange, grant them undue privileges. An internal inquiry report found him guilty and recommended that he be transferred in June. However, it did not amount to anything. Now, Additional Chief Secretary Singh is said to have ordered a fresh inquiry into the mid-day's report to reveal the facts of the case.
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