Actor Amitabh Bachchan’s former bodyguard, Jitendra Shinde, was suspended from the Mumbai police department on Tuesday for violating service norms.
Shinde was a police head constable who was posted as the veteran actor’s bodyguard in 2015. Bachchan has been provided with X-category security, which allots him a security detail of two armed police personnel in the day and two at night.
The former constable, who worked with the veteran actor till August 2021, had been posted with the protection and security branch of the Mumbai Police.
Following allegations that he was earning Rs 1.5 crores annually, significantly higher than his salary, while he was posted to Bachchan’s security detail, Shinde was transferred to DB Marg police station in South Mumbai in August.
However, police sources had said the transfer was made in accordance with Mumbai police commissioner Hemant Nagrale’s new guidelines that no police constable would continue in the same post beyond five years.
But, at the same time, the police department also began looking into Shinde’s annual income and assets, and whether he was drawing a second salary from other sources. As per Maharashtra’s service rules, a government servant is prohibited from accepting a salary from two establishments.
This probe appears to have led to his suspension now.
Shinde had earlier told police officials that his wife runs a security agency in her name, which provides personal bodyguards to celebrities and renowned personalities.
It has now come to light that the transactions of this agency, which was also providing security to the Bachchan family, are reflected in Shinde’s bank account and not that of his wife, said a senior Mumbai Police official.
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The official also stated that the authorities had found out that the constable had travelled to Dubai and Singapore four times without informing his superiors, when, according to the rules, he should have obtained permission to travel abroad.
Shinde had also purchased some properties, which he had not disclosed, the official added.
In addition to suspending Shinde, the police commissioner of Mumbai has also set up an inquiry committee headed by Dilip Sawant, Additional Commissioner of Police (South), to look into the matter further.