Sanjay Pandey Ten days after he was removed as the acting DGP, Sanjay Pandey, the 1986-batch IPS officer, was appointed as the Mumbai Police Commissioner on Monday as the MVA government transferred the incumbent Hemant Nagrale to the post of managing director of Maharashtra State Security Corporation (MSSC). On February 18, the Bombay High Court had pulled up the Maharashtra government for “favouring” Pandey for the post of Director General of Police (DGP), even though his name did not make it to the list of three officers shortlisted by the UPSC as per the Prakash Singh judgment.
As the Mumbai Police Commissioner, Pandey will have a short tenure of four months with his retirement due on June 30.
Mumbai Police has seen three police commissioners in a span of less than a year after the removal of Param Bir Singh in March last year.
Pandey takes over the 40,000-strong Mumbai Police force within a year of the Antilia terror threat case, which led to the removal of Singh and subsequent arrest of a number of serving and former police officers, including Sachin Waze and Pradeep Sharma. The Mumbai Police is also under cloud after three of its officers in February were charged and one senior IPS officer is under the scanner for extorting money from angadias.
Around 6pm on Monday, Pandey came to the Mumbai Police headquarters and took charge from Nagrale. After meeting the joint commissioners and other senior officers, Pandey went to the old office of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) where he was once posted in the 1990s. Pandey’s appointment as Mumbai City Commissioner after being the head of the state police is the second time during the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government tenure that an officer who has served as a DGP has been later appointed as Mumbai’s top cop. Prior to this, Nagrale who was the state DGP was brought in as the Mumbai Police Commissioner after Singh was shunted out. Nagrale retires in October 2022.
Pandey, who was appointed the acting DGP of Maharashtra in April last year, was removed from the post and sent back to his original posting as MD of MSSC, following which he had proceeded on a month’s leave. Sources in the government said that there had been talk about appointing Pandey as the Mumbai Police Commissioner and Nagrale as DGP after the government’s hand was forced by the Bombay HC observation in a PIL that sought an order in the matter if the government did not take action.
An official said that since the government had a few days to take a decision considering the hearing in a case was due in a few days, they decided to remove Pandey and put him in charge of MSSC while appointing Rajneesh Seth as DGP.
“Once the government got some breathing space, it was decided that Pandey should be made the Mumbai Police Commissioner, one of the most sought after posts in the state. The government was happy with his performance as the state DGP. After all three parties agreed on it, a decision was taken on Monday and orders issued accordingly,” a government official added.
It was during Pandey’s over 10-month tenure as the state DGP that the police registered nearly five FIRs against Singh. During this period, Maharashtra police also arrested Union Minister Narayan Rane in connection with the comments he made against Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray.
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