Mumbai: The Maharashtra government appointed Rajnish Seth, IPS 1988 batch, as the new state Director General Police (DGP) on Friday. Before his appointment as the new state DGP, Seth was chief of the state Anti-Corruption Bureau. He took over charge from acting DGP Sanjay Pandey late on Friday evening.
The joint secretary of the state home department, Vyankatesh Bhat, issued the government order in this regard. Seth’s appointment comes as the state government is busy restoring its image and also that of the police in the face of a slew of probes into corruption charges against former home minister Anil Deshmukh, former Mumbai Police chief Param Bir Singh and others.
IPS officer Sanjay Pandey, the managing director of the Maharashtra State Security Corporation, had been holding additional charge as the state DGP since April 9 last year, after the then state DGP Subodh Jaiswal was transferred to the CBI.
Seth’s appointment was made shortly after the Bombay High Court pulled up the state government for ‘favouring’ acting DGP Sanjay Pandey and had asked it to decide with regard to the DGP’s post by Monday, February 21. The Bombay HC had said the state government has gone out of its way to upgrade Pandey’s gradings in the annual confidential report (ACR). It further added that “such an officer should never be considered for the post of DGP”. Thereafter, the government had started the process of appointing the new state DGP.
The government had considered one of the candidates recommended by the panel earlier, as the appointment had to be from the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) panel of three officers. These included Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) chief Rajnish Seth and Director General of Civil Defence K Venkatesham. However, Venkatesham has less than three months of service left, as he is due to retire in May.
Seth faces huge challenges in helping restore the past glory of the state police and fast-tracking the modernisation of the force. He had earlier worked as the Mumbai city joint commissioner (law and order) when there was rioting at Azad Maidan. He also headed the Maharashtra Force One and worked as the principal secretary in the state home department.
