THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The appointment of Kerala’s senior-most IPS officer Nitin Agrawal as the Director General of the BSF has come at a time when the state is poised to elect a new State Police Chief (SPC).
The tenure of incumbent chief Anil Kant will end on June 30 and Nitin was one among the three officers who were pipped to be shortlisted by the UPSC for the post of the top cop in the state. If the UPSC had gone by the seniority of the officers, as in the usual practice, apart from their track record, Nithin, K Padmakumar and Shaik Darvesh Saheb would have featured in the UPSC’s list of three from which the state government had to pick up its man.
Now, with Nitin most unlikely to return to the state, the slot is likely to go to the next officers in line. The next in line is Harinath Mishra and after him is Ravada A Chandrasekharan. Harinath belongs to the 1990 IPS batch, while Ravada is of 1991 IPS batch.
Both are working as Additional Directors in the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau. Sources said the two are yet to express their willingness to be considered for the race to the SPC post. However, sources added that they can give their names till the UPSC holds a final meeting to finalise the three-member list.
The state government has already sent a panel of names of eight officers to the UPSC. Apart from Nitin, Padmakumar and Shaik, the other names that feature in the list are that of Harinath, Ravada, Coastal Security ADGP Sanjeeb Kumar Patjoshi, Intelligence ADGP T K Vinod Kumar and Beverages Corporation MD Yogesh Gupta.
The UPSC is yet to announce the date of the meeting to finalise the three names. The meeting to be attended by the State Police Chief and the chief secretary is expected to be held in the third week of this month.