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Shatrujeet Kapur takes charge as new Haryana Police chief
The 1990-batch officer is the junior most in the list of three IPS officers empanelled by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and will have a minimum tenure of two years as mandated by the Supreme Court
The Manohar Lal Khattar-led Haryana government on Wednesday appointed Shatrujeet Singh Kapur as the new director general of police (DGP). Kapur takes over from PK Agrawal, whose two-year tenure ended on August 15.
The 1990-batch officer is the junior most in the list of three IPS officers empanelled by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and will have a minimum tenure of two years as mandated by the Supreme Court. He retires in 2026. The officer, who was holding the charge of director general, anti-corruption bureau (ACB), may continue to keep the post.
Also read: New Haryana director general of police: UPSC shortlists three IPS officers
Kapur’s proximity to chief minister Khattar seems to have made him an obvious choice to succeed Agrawal. Unlike 2021 when he went by seniority and appointed Agrawal, the chief minister decided to pick Kapur by superseding two 1989-batch officers, Muhammad Akil and RC Mishra. It is, however, not the first time that seniority had been breached in the appointment of the DGP as the state government had in 2019 appointed Manoj Yadava, the youngest of the three shortlisted by the UPSC.
When Khattar first took over as chief minister in 2014, Kapur was appointed head of the intelligence arm of the state police. Khattar had to shift him and the then DGP, Yashpal Singhal, in 2016 after the Jat quota agitation but he was soon appointed as the chairman and managing director of two power distribution companies, UHBVN and DHBVN, a post held by IAS officers. He was later appointed as principal secretary, transport, also before heading the state vigilance bureau, now known as the ACB.
Challenges before new DGP
Kapur takes over as the police head at a time when the Lok Sabha elections and state assembly polls are due next year. His colleagues say that an election year is probably a challenging period for any head of the police force, requiring persistent teamwork and deft handling of pressures of electoral politics.
Known as a hard task master, Kapur will also have at hand the task of ensuring that a communal flare-up, as it happened in Nuh weeks ago, does not get repeated. Reining in cow vigilantes, such as Monu Manesar, would be a major challenge for the new DGP.
Uneasy moments for state govt
The UPSC had on August 10 shortlisted three IPS officers serving in the state - Akil and Mishra besides Kapur - from among whom one was to be picked by the state government as the next head of the police force.
The process of selecting the new DGP, which was initiated in May, had its share of ups and downs with the UPSC writing back to the state government, seeking the service record of senior most Haryana IPS officer, Manoj Yadava, to make it a part of the proposal sent by the state government. Yadava, who remained Haryana DGP from 2019-21, is on central deputation.
The UPSC communique came after the Haryana government omitted Yadava’s name containing the names of nine IPS officers to the UPSC for shortlisting three officers for the DGP’s job, citing his unwillingness to come back.
The commission had sought Yadava’s record in light of Supreme Court directives and MHA undertakings in the apex court that that the consent of an officer is not required for the purpose of empanelment as DGP of the state. The MHA response before the SC came during the January hearing of an interlocutory application filed by the Nagaland government in the apex court.
However, the state government refused to send Yadava’s service record reiterating his unwillingness and his recent appointment as DG, Railway Protection Force, a central assignment. The move not to send Yadava’s service record was aimed to ensure that the three senior most IPS officers get empanelled on the basis of seniority, merit and experience.
UPSC’s empanelment committee met in New Delhi on August 10 and decided to overlook Yadava’s name after MHA officials, who also attended the meeting, are learnt to have cited the Kerala precedent. Kerala-cadre IPS officer Nitin Agrawal of the 1989 batch, who was on central deputation like Yadava, had figured among the eight IPS officers whose names were sent to the UPSC for empanelment as DGP. Nitin Agrawal, who was on central deputation with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), was subsequently appointed as DG, Border Security Force (BSF), in June and his name did not figure in the panel of the three IPS officers prepared by the UPSC.
