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If there's a vacancy in Delhi, dial Gujarat - Modi confidant Jha tipped to head capital's police force

Published On : 19 Jan 2016


New Delhi, (The Telegraph) Ahmedabad police commissioner Shivanand Jha, known to be a close confidant of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is tipped to be the next Delhi police commissioner, sources in the Union home ministry said today.

The present Delhi police chief, B.S. Bassi, is retiring next month-end.

Jha, a 1983 batch Gujarat cadre IPS officer, was part of the Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team (SIT) that probed the 2002 Gujarat riots when Modi was chief minister. Jha was later removed from the SIT on the orders of the apex court.

 

Shivanand Jha
The SIT had given the future Prime Minister a clean chit in the case.

Although no announcement has been made yet, several officials in the home ministry and Delhi police are now discussing the possibility of Jha stepping into Bassi's shoes, given the Gujarat cadre officer's proximity to the Prime Minister and BJP president Amit Shah.

So sharp is the focus on the change of guard that some officials said they heard that Jha would directly report to the PMO instead of Union home minister Rajnath Singh who has always found the power equation loaded heavily against him since he took over the ministry's helm. Delhi police report to the Union home ministry.

"The PMO calls the shots as all internal security decisions are taken either by Narendra Modi or national security adviser Ajit Doval. If Jha is appointed Delhi police commissioner, it means all the less power to Rajnath Singh," said a senior official at North Block.

Other sources said the Centre was keen to appoint as police commissioner someone who enjoyed the confidence of the Modi government. The skirmishes between the Centre and the Arvind Kejriwal government in the state, often involving the police, will also be a factor in the decision, other sources said.

These sources said Jha had accompanied Modi to Gandhi Maidan in Patna in October 2013 in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections when a series of low-intensity bombs were detonated in and around the venue.

"He is very close to Modiji and had accompanied him to oversee security arrangements at Gandhi Maidan," said another home ministry official.

Other IPS officers who are among the contenders for Delhi police commissioner are two special commissioners of Delhi police - Deepak Mishra and Dharmendra Kumar.

"The post of police commissioner in any city goes to someone close to the political leadership. In this case, Jha has an upper hand over the other contenders," said an official.

Jha is not an exception. As many as 20 Gujarat cadre officers (both IAS and IPS) have been brought to Delhi by the Modi government since it took over in May 2014.

 

 Delhi police chief, B.S. Bassi

"Modiji trusts some bureaucrats more than his ministerial colleagues. This is why he has

brought several officers who had closely worked with him when he was Gujarat chief minister for 13 years. Jha is also among his close confidants and there are enough indications that he might succeed Bassi," the official said.

Last year, the Modi government had appointed two "controversial" IPS officers in senior positions in the CBI, one of them a former member of a special investigation team that had probed the 2002 Gujarat riots. The move had led to resentment within a section of the agency.

Both appointments were cleared by the cabinet's appointments committee that the Prime Minister heads.

Photo credit: The Telegraph







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