Seven new ACPs appointed in major Pune police shuffle

According to the home department order, Bhagyashree Navtake is the new DCP (EOW and cyber crime); IPS Sagar Patil has been assigned Zone II; Namrata Patil Chavan has been given Zone V while IPS Rahul Sriram has been given Zone IV

The Pune police commissionerate on Thursday witnessed a massive rejig exercise as additional commissioner (administration) Sanjay Shinde was shifted to another assignment as additional CP (South Region).

Till late in the evening, no transfer order was issued to deputy police commissioner Pankaj Deshmukh as he was still holding the official charge. (HT REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO)

Seven new assistant commissioners have also been appointed for the city and they will take charge soon, the order stated.

Shinde was also holding charge of additional commissioner (traffic) while deputy commissioner of police (traffic ) Prasad Akkanouru has also been transferred, according to the order issued by state home department on Wednesday.

Similarly, DCP Sanjay Jadhav who was posted in Mumbai, has now been appointed as the new Highways SP for Pune region. The most recent transfer has been of former Pune police commissioner K Venkatesham, who was replaced by senior IPS officer Amitabh Gupta.

According to the home department order, Bhagyashree Navtake is the new DCP (EOW and cyber crime); IPS Sagar Patil has been assigned Zone II; Namrata Patil Chavan has been given Zone V while IPS Rahul Sriram has been given Zone IV. Surprisingly, the current officiating DCP Pankaj Deshmukh has not been transferred yet while a new DCP has been appointed in his place by the home department.

Till late in the evening, no transfer order was issued to deputy police commissioner Pankaj Deshmukh as he was still holding the official charge.

Similarly, Nilesh Ashtekar is the new PMRDA DCP while Sadanand Wayse has been appointed as Railways SP.

While Akkanouru could not complete his term as traffic DCP, no announcement has been made about who will be the new DCP traffic and add CP (traffic) for Pune city.

The traffic department which was given a new place to officiate began its operations in November 2019. Before, the traffic branch had been functioning from the new premises of the Pune police commissioner office in Camp.

A government bungalow, adjacent to the GST Bhavan was renovated to handle the crucial department.

Activist Prashant Inamdar, who works on traffic issues in the city, said, “We had demanded that an additional CP rank officer should be appointed to handle the traffic branch because it is a very important department.

However, there is no change on ground and traffic continues to be a major issue before the citizens with no improvements.

“We need a competent person who is interested in tackling the challenge of Pune’s traffic, who must be appointed as the DCP and where the job of the additional CP is just to supervise his junior for effective management of the traffic.

At times, some traffic DCPs have expressed that they have been sidelined due to the posting in traffic branch .

This kind of feeling must end and those passionate for the job must be appointed,” he said.