Mumbai: Deven Bharti, an Indian Police Service officer, who was part of the 26/11 investigation and is known to be close to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, took over as Mumbai police chief Wednesday after the three-year tenure of his predecessor Vivek Phansalkar came to an end. Phansalkar retired from the force after 35 years of service.
Bharti, 56, was serving as Special Police Commissioner in the force, a position created in January 2023. He is a high profile officer and one of longest serving Joint Commissioners of Police (Law and Order) of Mumbai. The 1994 batch officer has also previously served as Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) and chief of the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad.
Shortly after assuming office, Bharti told media persons, ” My top priority is to ensure that the police reach every individual in the city. We will work to bridge the gap between the police and the common citizen. At the same time, we will remain highly vigilant about cybercrime.” He added that he plans to integrate technology and artificial intelligence into the systems. “We are not just chasing criminals—we are using technology to stop crime before it happens.”
Bharti was involved in the probe into the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, but also courted controversy for the same. Hasan Gafoor, the then Mumbai Police Commissioner, had named four officers, including Bharti, in an interview to The Week for dithering to respond to the situation despite being present on ground during the attack.
In political corridors, it is well known that he is “Fadnavis’s blue-eyed boy” and that his plum postings in Mumbai came during Fadnavis’s previous term as chief minister between 2014 and 2019, when he also held the home portfolio.
Bharti was appointed Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) in April 2015, and went on to eventually set a record as the longest-serving officer in the post. He was transferred in 2019 after a directive by the Election Commission (EC) to Maharashtra government that no officer connected directly with the elections would be allowed to continue in the present district of posting, if he/she had completed three years in that district during the last four years.
But the Fadnavis government requested the EC to let Bharti stay on, citing his vast experience. He was allowed to continue serving in the position till the Lok Sabha polls that year, after which Fadnavis appointed him as state ATS chief. However, after the Maha Vikas Aghadi government came to power, he was transferred in 2020 to the Maharashtra State Security Corporation, which was seen as a “punishment” posting.
Since 2020, Bharti has been embroiled in multiple controversies.
In 2020, retired former Mumbai top cop Rakesh Maria in his autobiography alleged that Bharti was “aware” of Sheena Bora’s disappearance, but had not informed Maria about it. Bora was the daughter of television channel NewsX executive Indrani Mukerjea, who allegedly killed her. But Bharti rejected the allegation.
In 2021, Bharti was accused of pressuring a police officer to not follow up on a case of passport fraud against a Bharatiya Janata Party leader’s wife. For the same, an FIR was registered against him for cheating, forgery and under penal provisions of the Indian Passport Act.
But in October 2022, when the Mahayuti coalition came back to power with Fadnavis once again taking over as Maharashtra home minister, Bharti got a clean chit from the Mumbai crime branch.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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