Mumbai’s new CP Sanjay Pandey retires from police force in June this year

IPS officer Sanjay Pandey assumed charge of the Mumbai CP office on Monday. Pic/ANI

The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government on Monday appointed 1986-batch IPS officer Sanjay Pandey as the Mumbai commissioner of police (CP), just a few months ahead of his retirement from the force. His predecessor Hemant Nagrale, a 1987-batch IPS officer, was transferred to the Maharashtra State Security Corporation as the managing director.

Pandey was relieved from the additional charge as the Maharashtra director general of police (DGP), after the Bombay High Court pulled up the state government for favouring him. The government on February 18 transferred him to the Maharashtra State Security Corporation. According to sources, he was unhappy with the transfer. On Monday, he was transferred to the Mumbai CP office. He is set to retire from the police force in June.

The state government has been relying on him a lot amid the ongoing tussle with the Centre. Pandey was given additional charge of the DGP last February to probe against former Mumbai CP Param Bir Singh, who has levelled serious corruption allegations against former home minister Anil Deshmukh. During Pandey's tenure in the DGP office, multiple FIRs were filed and enquiries were conducted against Singh.

Senior-most officer of state

Pandey is the senior-most officer of the state, and the new DGP, Rajnish Seth, is two years junior to him. "The situation is peculiar. The government has taken this decision in the best interest of the state. The CP reports to the home department directly, but in certain circumstances, the DGP communicates with the CP, especially in a law and order situation. I think both the officers are mature enough to handle this," said Pravin Dixit, former Maharashtra DGP. "The posting of DGP is based on UPSC's norms and the government couldn't do anything as his [Sanjay Pandey] name was not recommended by the board. Hence, he was transferred. The CP's posting is at the discretion of the state," Dixit added. When Pandey held the additional charge of the DGP office, one of his posts on Facebook went viral. "It is very unfortunate that the Mumbai police commissioner doesn't report to the Maharashtra DGP," it read.

Pandey's works

He has brought a lot of changes in the police department during his tenure, like direct interaction with the force through social media on a daily basis and listening to their problems, and bringing administrative changes. Recently, the state government took a historic decision of removing the police naik post, and ensuring the promotion of every constable to the rank of sub-inspector, based on Pandey's recommendation. After taking charge as Mumbai CP on Monday, Pandey went against the general practice and did not address journalists, who were waiting outside the office for hours.