BENGALURU: With the appointment of Director General & Inspector General of Police (DG&IGP) Praveen Sood as Director, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Karnataka will have a new Head of Police Force (HoPF) this week.
Director General of Police, Commandant General, Home Guards, Civil Defence, Director General, Fire & Emergency Services & State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Alok Mohan — the next seniormost IPS officer in Karnataka, of 1987 batch — is likely to be appointed DG&IGP, considering his seniority and service record.
According to informed sources, there will also be a change of guard in Bengaluru City Police. The incumbent Commissioner of Police & DGP Pratap Reddy of the 1991 batch is likely to be posted out, following vacancies in the DGP post at either the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) or Home Guards, Civil Defence, in the event of Mohan being appointed HoPF.
“He is likely to be replaced by seniormost Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) and Special Commissioner, Traffic, Bengaluru, MA Saleem,” said sources. Saleem belongs to the 1993 batch and is next in line for promotion to DGP rank because of vacancies arising with the movement of Sood.
He would have been due for promotion in September this year, with the scheduled superannuation of DGP, Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement, P Ravindranath. There are, however, other officers of ADGP rank, who may be in the zone of consideration for the “most coveted” post of Bengaluru city commissioner.
Regarding the appointment of the next DG&IGP, the Department of Personnel & Administrative Reforms (DP&AR) will send the names of senior IPS officers who have completed 30 years of service and have clean annual confidential reports (ACRs), to the Union Public Service Commission for empanelment.
The Commission will empanel three names from the list and send them back to the state, and the chief minister will appoint the state police chief from among the three officers.
Along with Mohan, the DP&AR is likely to send the names of DGPs Kamal Pant (Recruitment & Training, ‘90 batch), Pratap Reddy, Prashant Thakur (Lokayukta, ‘92 batch), ADGPs Saleem, Ramachandra Rao (Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force) and Malini Krishnamurthy (Internal Security Division) of 1993 batch, along with other senior officers. There are likely to be some other transfers of officers holding important posts, including law and order and intelligence, added sources.