Gujarat on Friday got a new police chief when Ahmedabad Police Commissioner Ashish Bhatiya was elevated to the post of Director General of Police after incumbent Shivanand Jha retired after his extended tenure ended on July 31.
Mr. Bhatiya is a 1985 batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre. He will remain the State DGP till May 2022.
Mr. Jha was to retire in April but was given a three-month extension due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We sent the Union Public Service Commission a list of probables and it sent back three names from which Chief Minister Vijay Rupani chose Mr. Bhatia as DGP. An announcement for the post of Ahmedabad Police Commissioner will be made soon,” said Pradipsinh Jadeja, Minister of State for Home.
Mr. Bhatia has earlier held the top job in Surat and was also chief of State CID-Crime and Railways.
2008 blasts case
An anti-terror expert, Mr. Bhatia is credited with playing a major role in solving the 2008 serial blasts case in Ahmedabad in which more than 50 people were killed in the city. He was Joint Commissioner of Police in Ahmedabad crime branch.
He was also member of the Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) which probed main cases of 2002 riots, including the role of the then Chief Minister and other political leaders.
Coincidentally, Mr. Bhatiya’s elder brother Sanjay Bhatiya, a 1985 batch IAS of Maharashtra cadre, retired on the same day as Chairman of the Mumbai Port Trust.
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