New Maharashtra DGP Padsalgikar played key role in 26/11, Mumbai train blasts probes

New Maharashtra DGP DD Padsalgikar served with the IB, where as deputy director, joint director and additional director, he closely monitored Mumbai.

DD Padsalgikar, who took over as the new Maharashtra Director General of Police (DGP) on Saturday, is known among his friends and batchmates as a man of few words, and one of the finest officers in the state with extensive field and operational knowledge.

His colleagues say DD Padsalgikar (pictured) is ‘a man who has never fallen into the bracket of politics or politicians, and has remained non-controversial throughout his career’. (Kunal Patil/HT Photo)

Born to an Army officer on August 26, 1958, Padsalgikar spent his early years across the country. He completed his Master’s degree in French from Pune. A few know that he topped a one-year management course in Paris, which had students from 21 countries.

Padsalgikar is a 1982 batch IPS officer. An “excellent badminton and tennis player”, Padsalgikar’s batchmates said he was very good at high jump in the academy. They said that he is “a man who has never fallen into the bracket of politics or politicians, and has remained non-controversial throughout his career”.

As an IPS officer, Padsalgikar’s started his career as an assistant superintendent in Nagpur. He also served as superintendent of police in Osmanabad and Satara. His friends said Padsalgikar is a man of few words and knows Mumbai like the back of his hand owing to his stints as a deputy commissioner of the EOW, a deputy commissioner of the Mumbai crime branch and a deputy commissioner of zone 2 and zone 9.