State may not get full-time DGP till Dec ’12

Sharma had locked horns with the state government,which refused to promote him. Sharma moved the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT),where he accused Chief Minister Narendra Modi of downgrading the ranking in his annual confidential record (ACR).

In his petition to the CAT,he had alleged that he was being penalised for revealing the alleged misdeeds of state ministers and businessmen close to the government.

Despite being the seniormost IPS officer,Sharma was made MD of the Sheep and Wool Development Corporation,a post usually held by IAS officers. And the government appointed his batchmate Chitranjan Singh as the in-charge DGP after Sabir Khandwawala retired,but did not promote Sharma.

The Supreme Court had,however,taken cognizance of Sharma’s petition and ordered the state government to change his internal assessment markings from “very good” to “excellent’. The government was also asked to withdraw the charges slapped against Sharma in the Kutch encounter case 1984 which the state government had reopened,and upgrade his rank. However,the state government has still not promoted Sharma to the rank of the DG.

“Promoting Singh now will mean superceding Sharma and the state government does not want him moving the CAT again to challenge the decision,” said a top police officer. Sharma is currently on deputation at Bureau of Police Research and Development in Delhi.

Although Singh has two more years to retire,his other colleagues of the ADGP rank are soon going to retire. In the coming two years,eight ADGPs are due to retire.

The latest retirement was of IPS officer Sudhir Sinha,the former Ahmedabad Police Commissioner. He was to retire in August 2011 but was given an extension for another three months.

The next officer who would retire soon after Sinha is a 1977 batch IPS officer,K Nityanandam,who is the Managing Director of the Gujarat Police Housing Corporation.

Sinha was a close contender for the post of the DGP along with IPS officer Deepak Swaroop and Kuldip Sharma.

Another officer who is on a deputation to New Delhi,VK Gupta,would also retire a few days before Sharma in December 2012. Gupta has been on a deputation to the Central Vigilance Commission from more than a year now.

ADGP K Kumarswamy is also scheduled to retire in April 2012,before Sharma and Gupta. Kumarswamy currently heads the State Human Rights Commission.

In 2013,four ADGPs,possibly also the present in-charge DGP Singh,are due to retire. Singh’s main posting is that of the Director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau in the state.

The other three officers in the line would be Deepak Swaroop,S K Saikia and F M Guard. While Saikia is the Ahmedabad Police Commissioner,Swaroop is the chief of SC/ ST cell and Guard is the Director of Gujarat Police Training Academy. Swaroop was recently made the president of the IPS Officers’ Association.

The sanctioned strength of IPS officers for Gujarat is 161 while there are only 144 officers occupying different posts in the state police. Of them,10 are on central deputation and seven are on long training and study leaves. Moreover,seven officers are under suspension. They include the accused in Sohrabuddin-Tulsiram encounter cases and Sanjiv Bhatt,who was suspended for allegedly filing false affidavits in 2002 riots cases.