Confusion galore after Rakesh Maria's removal: Who’s in charge of Sheena Bora murder case?

MUMBAI: The government's desperate attempt at minimising damage, by entrusting the new home guard director-general with the "monitoring" of the Sheena Bora murder probe, may do more harm than good to the investigation.

The order, which came a couple of hours after the government replaced Rakesh Maria with Ahmed Javed in the top cop's chair, may lead to a multiple chain of command, something that Mumbai Police has not seen in recent memory.

After uproar over Maria's removal as police chief, govt says he'll 'monitor' Sheena probe. It would be impossible for investigating officers, part of the Mumbai Police force headed by new top cop (Javed), to take orders from DG, home guard, Maria, especially if there were differences of opinion between the two over how to take the probe forward, other officials said. And this probe is one of the most complicated that cops have had to handle, given the profile of the suspects and witnesses and the talk of laundering of huge sums of money.

Things have been made even more piquant because of the circumstances in which the transfer has been effected (Maria has been personally involved in the probe, having briefed the media about its progress around 11 p.m. on Monday), and the timing of the transfer (effected barely three weeks before the end of his tenure).