THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With only four days left for State Police Chief Shaik Darvesh Saheb to step down, the UPSC on Thursday shortlisted DGPs Nitin Agrawal, Ravada A Chandrasekhar, and Yogesh Gupta as probables to replace him.
The meeting, which was also attended by Shaik and Chief Secretary Dr A Jayathilak, went by seniority and picked the three from the list of six names that was forwarded by the state government.
The onus is now on the state government to pick one officer from among the three. The other three names, Manoj Abraham, Suresh Raj Purohit, and M R Ajith Kumar, were not considered by the UPSC as the first three names made the cut on account of their seniority.
Nitin, a 1990-batch IPS officer, is the senior-most among the lot. He was the BSF Director General before being repatriated to the state. Currently serving as the Road Safety Commissioner, he is set to retire by June 2026.
Ravada is the Special Director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB). The 1991-batch officer will also retire by June next year. Having been with a premier institution, Ravada has expressed his willingness to rejoin Kerala Police in case he is selected, though the central government has offered him the post of Secretary (Security) in the Cabinet Secretariat.
If he gets the call, then the promotion of ADGP M R Ajith Kumar to DGP rank will hit a roadblock, as the state can only have four officers of DGP rank. The state government had asked the Centre to create an additional cadre post of DGP, but the request has not been entertained.
The tenure of Yogesh, Director General of the Fire and Rescue Services, will run till 2030. He was recently moved out of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau over differences with the state government. It remains to be seen whether that perceived rift will affect his prospects.