Bengaluru:  The State Government has issued a notice seeking an explanation from Additional Director-General of Police (ADGP) R.P. Sharma on the letter written to Chief Secretary K. Ratna Prabha expressing concern over “deteriorating law and order in the State.”

Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy said that the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR) has been asked to look into the matter raised by Sharma.

With Opposition BJP crying foul over the law and order situation in the State, Sharma’s letter has come as an embarrassment to the State Government ahead of the Assembly elections.

A senior DPAR official said that the Department is verifying whether Sharma wrote the letter “in his personal capacity or as President of the IPS Officers’ (Karnataka) Association.”

Sharma, in his four-page letter to Chief Secretary Ratna Prabha, listed the recent attack on Lokayukta P. Vishwanatha Shetty, the attack by Congress MLA N.A. Haris’s son Mohammed Nalapad Haris on Vidvat at a cafe in UB city, Bengaluru, the assault on IAS officer      V. Rashmi in Mysuru and the attempt to set fire to a BBMP office by a Congress leader in Bengaluru city, as incidents of “serious concern”.

Chief Minister Siddharamaiah discussed the matter with the Home Minister and Director-General and Inspector-General of Police (DG&IGP) Neelamani N. Raju.

Sources said that the Chief Minister was upset with the letter and made it clear that discipline should be maintained in the department.

Meanwhile, BJP State General Secretary Shobha Karandlaje said that Sharma’s letter has shown the sorry state of law and order situation in the State due to political interference.