The young SP, a pass-out of the 1993 batch, holding independent charge of a district for the first time, hit the headlines for the manner in which the police handled a morcha against a triple murder in at Andhalgaon village in the Bhandara district.

The police had resorted to firing to quell an unruly mob resulting in the death of at least three demonstrators and injury to several others.

In the ensuing visit by Chief Minister Manohar Joshi and Munde, who also holds the Home portfolio, the issue of widespread corruption in the police recruitment process at Bhandara came to light.

The corruption charges were levelled through a memorandum handed over to Munde by the Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders inBhandara. It was alleged that the Project Affected People and Other Backward Classes candidates were deliberately overlooked in the recruitment process.

Taking a serious cognisance of the charge, Munde had then directed the State Director General of Police, Arvind Inamdar, to conduct a probe into the entire affair and submit a report within a fortnight.

Special Inspector General of Police, Thane Range, R S Sharma was entrusted with the probe and it was on the eve of Sharma's visit to Bhandara that Burde reportedly attempted to roll back the recruitment process.

This, after the police had conducted physical tests and interviews of 186 male and 16 female aspirants and only the names of selected candidates were to be declared.

The Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde's order scrapping the recruitment process comes in the wake of a report submitted by Sharma recently, reliable sources said.

In between, the Home department had ordered transfer of Burde to Nagpur as Deputy Commissioner of Police (TrafficBranch) and T B Deotale, who was holding the DCP-Traffic charge here, was asked to proceed to Bhandara to take charge as SP.

Deotale is yet to take charge of his new posting following a request by city Police Chief Ullhas Joshi suggesting that he was not in a position to relieve Deotale till the State Cabinet Meeting scheduled here for November 10.

DCP Traffic T B Deotale too has cited domestic compulsions while pleading that his transfer to Bhandara be withheld for the time being.