Mumbai Police: Young cops get top posts in city

(From left) Satyanarayan Chaudhary, Lakhmi Gautam, Nishit Mishra, S Jayakumar, Pravin Padwal

A young batch of IPS officers has been appointed to top posts of the city police as part of the recent reshuffling by Home Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Instead of appointing senior Inspector General-rank officers as joint commissioners, Devendra Fadnavis has given charge to officers recently promoted to IG rank. Incidentally, the new joint commissioners of crime, law and order, economic offences wing and traffic departments are all from the IPS 2004 batch.

The new joint commissioners of Mumbai police are Lakhmi Gautam (crime), Satyanarayan Chaudhary (law and order), Nishith Mishra (economic offences wing), Pravin Padwal (traffic) and S Jayakumar (administration).

All five officers have earlier worked in Mumbai as deputy commissioner of police and additional commissioner, and hence have a good knowledge about the city's law and order issues.

Joint Commissioners Lakhmi Gautam (crime) and Satyanarayan Chaudhary (law and order) said that apart from routine crimes, their focus will be on cybercrime.

An official from the state home ministry said, "The government has given a chance to young officers who are quick in decision making. This is also done to improve the image of Mumbai police which was tarnished during the Antilia episode when several cops were arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA)."

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Meet the top cops

Satyanarayan Chaudhary, joint CP (law and order)
Chaudhary has earlier served as DCP (detection) of Mumbai Crime Branch, DCP of Zone 9 and additional commissioner of south region. He was also the spokesperson of Mumbai police.

Lakhmi Gautam, joint CP (crime)
Gautam has served as IG at Anti-Corruption Bureau apart from DCP of Zone 6 and additional commissioner of east region of the Mumbai police which reports the highest number of serious crimes in the city.

Nishit Mishra, joint CP (economic offences wing)
Mishra is known as one of the finest officers of recent times. During his tenure as Superintendent of Police in CBI Delhi, he probed the infamous Vyapam scam. He was posted as the IG of Maharashtra ATS. He has also served as additional commissioner of Mumbai south region.

S Jayakumar, joint CP (administration)
Jayakumar has served as DCP of EOW, Mumbai and investigated the infamous National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) fraud. He was also DCP of Mumbai Zone 3 and additional commissioner of central region

Pravin Padwal, joint CP (traffic)
Padwal was earlier posted as the joint commissioner (EOW). Before this, he has served as DCP of Mumbai Zone 3 and additional commissioner of north region as well as traffic police.