Shake-up in police top brass in Maharashtra

The Eknath Shinde–Devendra Fadnavis government is planning to create a post of special commissioner of Mumbai police and appoint IPS officer, Deven Bharati, for the position, although no decision to that effect has been taken yet

Mumbai: The much-awaited shake-up of the top brass in the police department took place late on Tuesday evening – it included transfers of five joint commissioners of Mumbai police.

The major shake-up in senior offices comes as the state prepares for the civic and local self-government polls. Though the state home department has cleared the transfers, it has not promoted IPS officers from additional DG to DG level, although three positions in the rank have been vacant since June. (ANI)

Senior IPS officer Sadanand Date will be the new chief of state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), Lakhi Gautam has been named joint commissioner (crime) while Milind Bharambe will be new police chief of Navi Mumbai.

The Eknath Shinde–Devendra Fadnavis government is planning to create a post of special commissioner of Mumbai police and appoint IPS officer, Deven Bharati, for the position, although no decision to that effect has been taken yet.

Pune commissioner of police (CP) Amitabh Gupta is now the additional director general (ADG), in-charge of law and order, while the Mira Bhayander Vasai Virar CP Sadanand Date will assume the office of state ATS chief. Ritiesh Kumar has been named the new Pune police chief.

Inspector General of Police (law and order) Milind Bharambe, of the state police headquarters, is the new CP of Navi Mumbai, while Madhukar Pandey, ADG of the economic offences wing, is the new CP of Mira Bhayander. Inspector general (IG) (coastal security), Satyanarayan Choudhari, has been posted as the joint commissioner of law and order in Mumbai, while Nishit Mishra, who worked in the ATS is now new joint commissioner in the economic offences wing (EOW) in Mumbai. The joint commissioner of EOW Pravin Padwal will head Mumbai’s traffic police at the same level and Lakhmi Gautam, the state IG (establishment), will be joint commissioner of crime branch, Mumbai, while the IG (admin) of the state police, S Jaykumar, will head Mumbai police’s administration wing.

It is learnt that CP of Thane, Jai Jeet Singh, was also due for promotion, and the announcement of his transfer will be made later. Joint commissioner of police (traffic) Rajvardhan Sinha has been posted as joint managing director, Maharashtra State Security Corporation, the post occupied by Bharati, who is now on the wait.

The major shake-up in senior offices comes as the state prepares for the civic and local self-government polls. Though the state home department has cleared the transfers, it has not promoted IPS officers from additional DG to DG level, although three positions in the rank have been vacant since June.

Additional DG of state anti-corruption bureau, Vinoy Choubey, is the new commissioner of Pimpri Chinchwad. While the CP of Pimpri Chinchwad, Ankush Shinde, will head Nashik police. Pravin Pawar has been appointed as the IG of Konkan range, in-charge of five districts -- from Sindhudurg to Palghar. Sunil Fulari will be additional CP of Nashik range.

IPS officer Niket Kaushik, who has been awaiting posting since a couple of months, has been posted as additional DG in the anti-corruption bureau (ACB).

The additional CPs in Mumbai have also been shifted. Anil Kumbhare will head the central region in Mumbai, while Paramjit Dahiya will be additional CP of western region, Vinayak Deshmukh will head eastern Mumbai and Rajiv Jain northern Mumbai.

Amravati CP Aarti Singh is now the additional commissioner of armed police, Mumbai, while the DIG of Nanded range, Nisar Tamboli, has been transferred as additional CP in Mumbai traffic police. Additional CP Dnyaneshwar Chavan of Mumbai police’s central region has been posted in the crime branch.