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Amid speculation that his tenure may be extended, a farewell ceremonial parade has been organised on Thursday for Delhi Police chief Sanjay Arora, a 1988-batch IPS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre. If the government does not grant him an extension, this will be Arora’s last ceremonial event, which is traditionally held for all police chiefs.
The farewell ceremonial parade is a gesture of honour shown to the retiring police commissioner by the force at Police Lines, Kingsway Camp in Northwest Delhi. It concludes with a farewell speech by the officer, followed by the handing over of charge to his successor. Last month, the Delhi Home Department issued a formal notification announcing Arora’s retirement date as July 31.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has yet to decide on the appointment of the next Delhi Police Commissioner. According to government sources, it is possible that an officer from outside the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh–Goa–Mizoram–Union Territory) cadre will be appointed again. If that happens, it will mark the third such consecutive appointment to the top post in the Delhi Police.
Before Sanjay Arora, Rakesh Asthana, a 1984-batch IPS officer from the Gujarat cadre, served as the Delhi Police Commissioner after receiving a one-year extension to his service. He retired on July 31, 2022. In the days leading up to Asthana’s retirement too, there were similar speculations about a six-month extension to his tenure as the Delhi Police chief.
Arora’s appointment order, which came late in the evening on July 31, 2022, from the MHA, had surprised the force, as he was also from outside the cadre and had also not yet completed his tenure as the head of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), a role he assumed on September 1, 2021. He took over as the Delhi Police Commissioner on August 1, 2022, succeeding Asthana.
Sources said that if the MHA considers appointing an officer from the AGMUT cadre, the senior-most officers include S B K Singh (1988 batch), Virender Singh Chahal (1991), Nuzhat Hassan (1991), Satish Golcha (1992), and Praveer Ranjan (1993).
While Asthana was known for being vocal and never shying away from the media, Arora, during his three-year tenure as the head of the Delhi Police, remained media-shy and did not hold a single press conference on any issue.
During his tenure, Delhi witnessed several major challenges, including threats, extortion, gang wars, street crimes, and cyber fraud. In the past three years, gangsters operating from abroad have posed a significant challenge to the Delhi Police, even issuing threats to officers on the force.
In 2023, the Special Cell successfully brought back one of the most wanted gangsters, Deepak ‘Boxer’ — an associate of Lawrence Bishnoi — from Mexico, marking one of the major successes of the force during Arora’s tenure.
One of the biggest achievements of the Delhi Police during Arora’s stint was the busting of an international drug syndicate, resulting in the seizure of narcotics worth over Rs 13,000 crore by the Special Cell. For this, the MHA had appreciated the Delhi Police.
However, several cases involving bomb threat emails sent to schools, hospitals, airlines, and other government institutions remain unsolved, besides two mysterious blasts that occurred in Rohini last year.
During Arora’s tenure, the PCR (Dial 112/100) unit was re-established as a separate entity, after having been merged with the law and order unit during Asthana’s tenure.
Arora’s stint, however, remained largely non-controversial. Although rumours about his transfer surfaced from time to time after he completed two years as Delhi Police Commissioner, he continued in the role. Arora is among the few officers who have served beyond the usual two-year tenure, following K K Paul (2004–2007) and Y S Dadwal (2007–2010).
Additionally, Vivek Gogia, Special Commissioner and head of Delhi Police’s anti-terror unit, is also set to retire on the same day
During his time in the Tamil Nadu Police, Arora was the superintendent of police (SP) of the Special Task Force and carried out operations against forest brigand Veerappan in the sandalwood forests of the state.
In 2004, the sandalwood smuggler was killed in a shootout by Arora’s team, which was led by famed IPS officer K Vijay Kumar. Arora was awarded the CM’s Gallantry Medal for Bravery and Heroic Action for his role. His work in Tamil Nadu earned him a Police Medal for meritorious service in 2004.
Ten years later, he was awarded the President’s Police Medal for distinguished service. He was also part of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Kosovo, for which he earned a UN Peacekeeping medal. He went on to serve as the director general of the ITBP and as the director general of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) from 2021 to 2022.
