Thiruvananthapuram: The State government has forwarded a list of 12 senior IPS officers to be considered as the next police chief to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
The UPSC will return a shortlist of three officers to the State, where a selection panel, including the Chief Secretary and Home Secretary, will pick the next State police chief.
The incumbent chief, Loknath Behera, will retire on June 30. The government is of the view that the next chief should be selected from the UPSC shortlist, unlike states like Tamil Nadu or West Bengal.
The government in those states had posted officers close to them as police chiefs ‘in-charge’ without forwarding a longlist to the Centre.
Director of Special Protection Group Arun Kumar Sinha is the senior-most among the 12 Kerala officers, and he tops the list, followed by Tomin J Thachankary (Managing Director, Kerala Financial Corporation) and Vigilance Director Sudesh Kumar.
Sinha is not likely to return to Kerala since he is considered a confidante of Prime Minister Modi. He is also in charge of the prime minister’s security detail.
Thachankary is the front-runner while considering his marks in the 10 years’ confidential reports. Though he has been facing a vigilance probe in a disproportionate asset case, a chargesheet has not yet been filed against the officer.
Sudhesh Kumar is not facing any probe, but his daughter has been under Crime Branch investigation for assaulting a police driver. All these details have also been provided to the UPSC, along with the list of 1987 to 1991-batch IPS officers, who have completed 30 years in service.
Besides the three officers, B Sandhya (Director General, Fire and Rescue Services); Anil Kant (Commissioner, Road Safety); Nitin Agarwal (central deputation); S Aananthakrishnan (Commissioner, Excise); K Padmakumar (ADGP, Armed Police Battalion); Sheikh Darvesh Saheb, (Director, Police Academy); Harinath Mishra (central deputation); Ravada A Chandrasekhar (central deputation) and Sanjib Kumar Patjoshi (central deputation), are also included in the list forwarded to the UPSC.
Behera in shortlist for CBI chief post
Director-General of Police Loknath Behera has been shortlisted as the next Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation. A meeting at the Prime Minister’s Residence will select the next CBI chief on Monday.
Praveen Sinha has been temporarily holding the charge of Director, CBI, since February. To select the next director, the Central Department of Personnel and Training prepared a list of 22 eligible officers belonging to batches between 1984 and 1987. Behera is third among the eight shortlisted officers.
Rakesh Asthana (Director General, Border Security Force); Y C Modi (Director General, National Investigation Agency); Hitesh Chandra Awasti (DGP, Uttar Pradesh); Subodh Kumar Jaiswal (Director General, Central Industrial Security Force); M A Ganapathy (Director General, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security); are Surjeet Singh Deswal (Director General, Indo-Tibetan Border Police) in the list besides the temporary chief and Gujarat-cadre officer Praveen Sinha.
Behera may also be considered to head the Enforcement Directorate.
