Amid MVA-BJP tussle, Sanjay Pandey appointed new Mumbai police commissioner

Outgoing commissioner Hemant Nagrale will replace Pandey as managing director, Maharashtra State Security Corporation. Nagrale is retiring on September 30.

Amid the tussle between the three ruling parties - Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress - in the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the cases against leaders from both sides and days after the Bombay high court rap for his appointment as acting Director General of Police (DGP), senior most serving IPS officer Sanjay Pandey, 59, has been appointed as the new Mumbai police commissioner.

The state home department issued an order on Monday, appointing Pandey, a 1986-batch IPS officer, as the new commissioner of police. (Bhushan Koyande/ HT Photo)

Outgoing commissioner Hemant Nagrale will replace Pandey as managing director, Maharashtra State Security Corporation. Nagrale is retiring on September 30.

The state home department issued an order on Monday, appointing Pandey, a 1986-batch IPS officer, as the new commissioner of police. Pandey is retiring in June this year. He was removed from the post of acting DGP on February 18 after the high court pulled up the state government for his appointment in April last year.

The HC questioned if the state was ‘favouring’ him by continuing him in the post despite the Union Public Service Commission refusing to empanel him for the post. The court also said that the state should have restrained from appointing Pandey in the post amid the issues related to the gradation in the ACR.

The appointment of Pandey as the new CP, when he has just four months to retire, assumes significance. “Pandey is considered as an upright officer and had played a key role in the inquiry against former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh and former state intelligence department chief Rashmi Shukla. While ruling MVA leaders are facing cases by Central agencies, the Maharashtra and Mumbai police have registered cases against BJP leaders, including Union minister Narayan Rane, his son MLA Nitesh Rane, and Kirit Somaiya. The appointment of Pandey is assured as a strategic move by the ruling parties,” a senior NCP leader said.

After the arrest of state minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik by the Enforcement Directorate last week and the I-T raids against Sena leader Yashwant Jadhav, the slugfest between the MVA and the BJP has intensified. The ruling parties have reportedly decided to take the opposition BJP head-on and initiate action against its leaders who are facing charges.

According to officials from the home department, the change in guard at Mumbai commissionerate is the decision by chief minister Uddhav Thackeray who had a meeting with Nagrale before the transfer order on Monday.

However, a section of the Sena leadership is wary of the repercussions of the decision ahead of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation election slated to be held in the next couple of months.

“Nagrale is a Dalit and Marathi officer and has been transferred just seven months before his retirement. His 11-month stint has been non-controversial. The opposition is expected to play it up in the election directly or indirectly,” a Sena leader said.