Gujarat govt appoints regular DGP after a gap of two years
With the appointment of Shivanand Jha, the state will have a regular DGP after almost two years. The last regular DGP was P C Thakur, who was replaced by senior IPS officer P P Pandey.
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DGP in-charge Pramod Kumar (left) congratulates Shivanand Jha after he assumed charge, in Gandhinagar on Wednesday. (Express photo)
The Gujarat government on Wednesday appointed 1983-batch IPS officer of Director General of Police rank, Shivanand Jha, as state police chief, replacing incumbent DGP Pramod Kumar, who has retired.
With the appointment of Jha, the state will have a regular DGP after almost two years. The last regular DGP was P C Thakur, who was replaced by senior IPS officer P P Pandey. After Pandey, Geetha Johri and Pramod Kumar were also given part-time charge of the police chief.
Jha, DGP (state intelligence), took over the charge from Kumar at Police Bhawan in Gandhinagar on Wednesday evening. Jha has served as Ahmedabad police commissioner between October 2013 and October 2016. It was under his watch when Hardik Patel led Patidar agitation for reservation turned violent after his brief detention in October 2015.
Originally from Bihar, Jha’s name also figured in the list of people accused by Zakia Jafri, wife of former Congress MP Ahsan Jafri, who was killed in Gulberg Society, for allegedly being responsible for the 2002 post-Godhra riots. Jha was additional commissioner of police, Sector 1, Ahmedabad, during the riots.
Incidentally, he was also included as a member of Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by the Supreme Court to further probe the eight big cases of riots, including Naroda Patiya, Naroda Gam, Gulberg, among others, and also in the complaint of Zakia Jafri. Later, Supreme Court ordered removal of Jha and Johri from the SIT after NGOs levelled allegations against them.
“He is credited with having controlled major violence during the riots when a Hindu mob wanted to target a group of Muslims in Karanj police station area. It was Shivanand Jha who took out a rifle and shot at miscreants to disperse the crowd. During our probe of the riots, we found that he had, in fact, saved more than 60 Muslims. People from VHP and RSS created lots of trouble for him and ultimately he was transferred to Rajkot, Armed Unit as DIG,” said a source in the SIT.
In the late 90s, Jha also served as Deputy Municipal Commissioner, Ahmedabad. Jha was also heading an SIT appointed by the state government in 2013 to probe three alleged fake encounter and custodial death cases against IPS officer Satish Verma, which came with the finding that the encounters were “fake”.
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