Maria's activism in Sheena murder case cost him post?

Mumbai - Recent years have seen several controversies relating to the appointment of the top cop in Mumbai.

When governments want to ease out controversial police chiefs in Maharashtra, they prefer to 'promote' them to the rank of director-general of police (DGP) and shunt them to ineffective bodies such as police housing or home guards.
Rakesh Maria, the high-profile former police commissioner of Mumbai might have been the latest to have been 'kicked upstairs' by the state government, but many of his predecessors - and even contemporaries - have been disposed of in this manner.
In fact, Ahmed Javed, the new police commissioner, was himself promoted to the rank of DGP and moved to Home Guards in February 2014, though he was senior to Maria and had been sidelined in the race to the top post.
The Mumbai police commissioner's post - along with that of commissioners of other major cities including Pune, Nagpur, Thane and Navi Mumbai - usually went to an officer of the rank of additional DGP. But with Javed, a DGP-rank officer, taking over as police chief, the Mumbai commissioner's rank has had to be upgraded once again. In the past, senior officers including R.H. Mendonca and M.N. Singh were also DGP rank officers.
Recent years have seen several controversies relating to the appointment of the top cop in Mumbai. Many Indian Police Service (IPS) officers - both present and retired - admit that there is intense politicking, with top officials lobbying their case with politicians.
One former prominent police chief of Mumbai, P.S. Pasricha, had also experienced the government's wrath, when he was 'promoted' and moved out of the top post, though he was commissioner for just three months. In February 2004, Pasricha was surprised to be informed that he was being promoted to the DGP rank and asked to take over as managing director of the Maharashtra State Police Welfare and Housing Corporation. He was replaced by Anami Narayan Roy.
About three years ago, Arup Patnaik, the then Mumbai police commissioner, was promoted as DGP and shunted out as managing director of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation.
Maria's abrupt transfer on Tuesday came days after Maharashtra chief minister indirectly expressed his displeasure over the 'zealousness' with which the police have been probing the Sheena Bora murder case. He hoped the police would pay adequate attention to other murder cases, which were not under the limelight.
Maria has interrogated the three key accused persons - Sheena's mother Indrani Mukerjea, and her former husband Sanjeev Khanna, and former driver Shyam Rai - besides Peter Mukerjea, the former chief of Star TV India, several times over the past few days.
Usually in murder cases, it is a relatively junior officer, the inspector, who heads investigations. But Maria, who has solved several major terror attack and murder cases, took over the entire probe into the Sheena murder case, though he was heading the city police unit.
Maria, however, denied on Wednesday that he was planning to quit because of the sudden move to shift him.
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