NEW DELHI: On the expected lines, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Thursday issued an order appointing 1992-batch senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of AGMUT cadre Satish Golcha as the new full-time Commissioner of Delhi Police.
Incidentally, the decision to appoint Golcha as the full-time Commissioner of Delhi Police has come just a day after Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta was allegedly attacked by an individual during a public hearing at her official residence here.
Notably, hours after the Delhi CM was attacked, the MHA gave the security charge to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and now it is providing ‘Z’ category security cover to her. Before the incident, she was protected by personnel of the Delhi Police.
A source said that the MHA rushed to decide to appoint a full-time CP in Delhi, following an initial probe into the incident, which suggested that there were major security lapses behind the attack on the CM, and the non-activity of the security personnel of Delhi Police when the incident took place.
In the order, the MHA said, “With the approval of the competent authority, Sh Satish Golcha, IPS (AGMUT: 1992), presently posted as Director General (Prisons), is hereby appointed to the post of the Commissioner of Police, Delhi with effect from the date of assumption of charge and until further orders.
Golcha will take over the charge from 1988-batch IPS officer of the AGMUT cadre SBK Singh, who has been officiating on the post since former CP Sanjay Arora superannuated on July 31, 2025. Singh is a full-time Director General of Home Guard (Delhi).
Before Golcha being appointed as the full-time CP in Delhi, the post was back-to-back being held by two (now retired) IPS officers, who were not from the joint AGMUT cadre. Arora was a 1988-batch IPS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre and his predecessor Rakesh Asthan was a 1984-batch Gujarat cadre IPS officer.
Delhi has seen its top police post filled by officers from outside the joint AGMUT cadre that began in 1999 when a UP cadre IPS officer Ajay Raj Sharma was appointed as Delhi CP, a practice that was repeated in 2021with Asthana and continued up to July 31, 2025 with Arora holding the post. Interestingly, on all these three occasions the commissioners from outside the AGMUT cadre were appointed by the NDA government at the Centre.
