Rashmi Shukla likely to be on state govt list of candidates for next DGP

Senior IPS officer Rashmi Shukla is a strong contender for the post of state police chief in Maharashtra. The current DGP will retire on December 31.

Senior IPS officer Rashmi Shukla has emerged as a strong contender for the post of state police chief, two days after a court accepted the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) closure report in a case pertaining to disclosure of her confidential report.

Pune, India - June 23, 2017:Rashmi Shukla, Commissioner of Police, Pune City posses for photo at her office in Pune, India, on Friday, June 23, 2017. (Photo by Pratham Gokhale/ Hindustan Times) (Pratham Gokhale/HT PHOTO)

The current director general of police (DGP), Rajnish Seth, will retire on December 31. Considering this, the home department will soon send a list of probable candidates to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) who will in turn select three of them. The state government will have to pick one of them as the next DGP.

Shukla, a 1988-batch IPS officer of Maharashtra cadre, is currently the DGP of Sashastra Seema Bal and is senior to Seth. She is due to retire in June 2024 but if she becomes the DGP, she can get a stipulated two-year term.

Apart from Shukla, another prominent name on the list would likely be Mumbai police commissioner Vivek Phansalkar, who will retire in April 2025.

Sources at Mantralaya said since there are elections due, there is a high chance of the state appointing Shukla. The second choice could be Phansalkar. But if Phansalkar is promoted, then the state can downgrade the post of police commissioner so that an officer of additional DG rank can be accommodated there. The state can possibly appoint special commissioner Deven Bharti to head Mumbai police or get another officer, the sources said.

Shukla did not respond to a message by this correspondent.

The state’s list is also likely to have names of other DG rank officers such as police housing corporation chief Sandeep Bishnoi, railway police DG Pradnya Sarvade, Thane police Commissioner Jaijeet Singh, Anti Terrorism Squad chief Sadadand Date, National Investigation Agency’s additional director Atul Chandra Kulkarni and state security corporation DG Bipin Kumar Singh. There will also be the names of officers who can be promoted to DG rank by December 2023 and some additional director general rank officers who have completed 30 years of service.

The UPSC normally prepares a panel of three officers and the state selects from this. Earlier, the home department got its fingers burnt after it appointed IPS officer Sanjay Pandey as DGP and he was not empanelled. He was later sent as a police commissioner.

Shukla had served as Pune police commissioner, additional DG (traffic), inspector general (law and order), DIG (administration), SP in Nagpur and DCP in Solapur. But her stint as State Intelligence Department (SID) commissioner was controversial as during this period the department allegedly tapped telephones of top political leaders.

The Mumbai cyber police on March 26, 2021, filed a case, based on a complaint filed by an assistant commissioner at SID, against unknown persons for allegedly leaking a report prepared by Shukla highlighting irregularities in police transfers and postings in Maharashtra.

In February 2022, the Pune police booked Shukla for allegedly tapping the phones of several politicians during her tenure as the Pune City police commissioner. The police in December 2022 filed a closure report, but a court rejected it stating that there was enough prima facie evidence against her.

The Colaba police in March 2022, too, registered a similar FIR against her. The police in April last year filed a chargesheet and Shukla then approached a court seeking discharge. In this case, there is no sanction to prosecute Shukla.

Last November, the home department headed by Devendra Fadnavis sent a report to the Centre on the status of the FIRs.

On Monday, the metropolitan magistrate court accepted an A-summary report (an investigation report indicating that the facts are true but there is no prosecutable evidence to put the person on trial) submitted by the CBI on May 22, 2023, in connection with the report leak case.