After pulling up bureaucrats for not implementing policy fast enough, it was the turn of Karnataka’s police officers to bear the brunt of Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda’s ire. Rapidly gaining the reputation of being the ‘smiling assassin.” Mr Gowda, who lit into senior police officials on Monday while inaugurating the Senior Police Officers’ meet at state DGP and IGP’s office, asked why as many as 8,000 cases ended in a ‘B’ report (no evidence to prove charges ) last year.

He said he has a list of officials who not only press for favourable postings but also curry favour with politicians: “A police official should be ready to work anywhere in the state. If you (police officials) don’t affiliate yourself with a politician, they will start saluting you,” adding, he has the names of some 500 such officers of various ranks on his list. “People cannot expect you to be unbiased when you use political clout to get a posting. This should end. Or I don’t know, I might open that diary of mine,”