BENGALURU: The Bengaluru city police is likely to witness a change of guard. Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy will soon appoint a new Commissioner of Police in place of the incumbent T Suneel Kumar. He has been at the helm for almost two years. Besides the Commissioner, there will be a reshuffle of many IPS officers in the city and state, sources told TNIE. On the top of the list to succeed Suneel Kumar is ADGP (Internal Security Division) C H Pratap Reddy of 1991 batch.
‘Pratap Reddy has Gowda’s support’
C H Pratap Reddy, as an Inspector General of Police, was posted in the city as Additional Commissioner of Police (West) in 2015 for seven months before he was promoted as ADGP. “Former PM H D Deve Gowda reportedly supports Reddy’s candidature for the top cop’s post,” the sources added. There are, however, other contenders for the post. While it is the CM’s prerogative to appoint an officer of his choice from among the Additional Directors General of Police (ADGPs), he will have to take the concurrence of his coalition partners for appointing the Police Commissioner,” said the sources.
Among the other contenders are ADGP (Law & Order) Kamal Pant of 1990 batch, who was posted in the city as Additional Commissioner (Law & Order) between 2013 and 2014. ADGP (KSRP) Bhaskar Rao, also of 1990 batch from Bengaluru, and ADGP Sunil Agarwal of 1991 batch, who is currently serving in the Fire & Emergency Services Department are also among the aspirants.
Talk about the change of guard in the city police have been doing the rounds for quite sometime now, but no decision was taken because of the Lok Sabha elections. “The pathetic performance of the Congress-JD(S) coalition in the polls came as a jolt and both parties are yet to recover from it. The IPS transfer and posting list has been delayed because of this,” the sources added.