Top IB man could be Mumbai's new Police Commissioner

The Maharashtra Government has written to the Centre about the appointment of Maharashtra-Cadre, 1982-batch IPS officer, Datta Padsalgikar, as the commissioner of Mumbai Police.

Datta Padsalgikar

If the Centre relieves Padsalgikar, who is Additional Director with the Intelligence Bureau in New Delhi, the State can appoint him as the Commissioner of Police, Mumbai.

Padsalgikar will be the 40th police commissioner of Mumbai. "We have written to the Centre and are waiting for their reply. Once they revert to us, we will check with Ahmad Javed, the present Commissioner of Police, as to when he wants to leave the post," said KP Bakshi, additional chief secretary, Home Department.

Ahmad Javed's next appointment is as the Indian envoy in Saudi Arabia and is likely to retire on January 31, 2016.

Javed might have to leave Mumbai before January 31, as Saudi Arabia has already cleared his appointment and the post is presently vacant.

A meeting of senior IPS officers had taken place in Nagpur, in which it is said, Padsalgikar's name was approved. The state government is very keen to appoint Padsalgikar, who even met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in Nagpur, during the Winter Session of the Assembly.

After the removal of Rakesh Maria as the commissioner of police, Padsalgikar had rejected the offer of appointment as police commissioner, as he was very keen on IB, but now he is ready to come back to the city, said a source.