Delhi Police officers overseeing Hizbul terrorist arrest, Parliament breach among other important cases reshuffled

While L-G House officials termed the exercise a “routine affair”, sources in the bureaucracy told The Indian Express that the reshuffle had been on the anvil for several months. Said an official, “The L-G had sought a reshuffle in the Delhi Police ranks well before the G20 Summit but the matter was postponed due to one issue or another; Saxena has come down very heavily on issues related to policing on more than one occasion since taking over, especially with respect to corruption.”

“The recent NCRB report, which posits Delhi at the top of the list of metropolitan cities most unsafe for women, did not help the Delhi Police’s case in this regard,” the official also said.

Both Special Commissioners of Police for Law and Order, Zone 1 and 2, have been transferred. Dependra Pathak, earlier Special CP (Law and Order, Zone 1), is now Special CP (Security). Pathak had held the post since September 2021. Sagar Preet Hooda, Special CP (Law and Order, Zone 2), has now been posted as Special CP Ops (PCR and Communications) with additional charge of Perception Management and the Media Cell Division.

Further, Special CP (Crime Branch) Ravindra Yadav has been made Special CP (Law and Order, Zone 1) while Madhup Tiwari, who was earlier Special CP (Protective Security Division), has been posted as Special CP (Law and Order, Zone 2).

Meanwhile, Special CP (Special Cell) HGS Dhaliwal has been posted as Special CP (Traffic, Zone 2) while incumbent S S Yadav has been posted as Special CP (EOW). In Dhaliwal’s tenure as Special Cell chief, police caught assailants who killed Sidhu Moosewala, busted ISIS terror modules, caught a Hizbul Mujahideen leader and arrested wanted gangsters from Mexico and Azerbaijan.

Rajender Pal Upadhyay, Special CP (Perception Management and Media Cell Division), is now Special CP (Special Cell).

At the DCP-level, DCP (New Delhi) Pranav Tayal, under whose supervision crucial cases like the Parliament breach, wrestlers’ protest, Israel Embassy blast, among others, are being probed, is now DCP (Special Branch). DCP (IGI) Devesh Mahla has taken charge as DCP (New Delhi).

Sources said Saxena had conveyed the need for “a change” among Deputy Commissioners of Police in “certain districts” on “more than one occasion” to the MHA last year.

Speaking at the Deputy Commissioners of Police conference at the Delhi Police headquarters in February last year, Saxena had said the city’s police administration, especially at the district level, is tainted, more than any other arm of civil administration. The taint of corruption, Saxena had said, coloured the personnel of the police administration “like none other” and needed to be handled not only at all levels, but more so in police districts.

Recent incidents reported from the city, including the Shraddha Walkar murder and the Anjali Singh hit-and-drag case, exhibited “glaring lacuna in policing at the field level”, Saxena had said.