Ending months of speculation, the Mumbai police on 30 June, Saturday announced the appointment of senior IPS Subodh Jaiswal as the new Commissioner of Police in Mumbai. Jaiswal took oath to the post on Saturday, assuming charge with immediate effect.
Jaiswal had earlier served as the additional commissioner of police in the state, and also has a stint at the state reserve police to his credit.
He has also served as a senior official with the research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and was part of the team that investigated the Telgi scam.
According to Mumbai Mirror, the state had written to Jaiswal in April, when he was in New Delhi working under the central government, asking if he would like to return to the Maharashtra force.
Jaiswal’s elevation to the post materialised after the outgoing CP Datta Padsalgikar took over as the Director General of Police, following the current DGP Satish Mathur’s retirement on 30 June.
However, it remains unclear if Padsalgikar will continue as DGP for long, as he too is slated for retirement on 31 August 2018.
According to a Times of India report, Padsalgikar may get a two-year tenure as is the norm, owing to a recent Supreme Court order. Speaking to the daily, a senior bureaucrat said:
The Supreme Court has made it clear that once a DGP is appointed, he should have a fixed tenure of two years even if s/he attains the age of superannuation. In Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, the outgoing DGPs were given tenure of two years. If Padsalgikar gets the advantage, then Jaiswal too can hold the Mumbai commissioner of police’s (CP) post for two years.
However, if Padgalsikar retires in August, Jaswal’s tenure as CP will be cut short, and he will be made DGP. A 1985-batch cadre, Jaiswal will retire in 2022.
The other front-runners for the post of CP along with Jaiswal were Thane CP Parambir Singh, CID commissioner Sanjay Barve and Pune CP Rashmi Shukla, reported Mumbai Mirror.
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