Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh is likely to get a police chief after nearly four years of the top post being vacant. Senior officers of Uttar Pradesh, including the chief secretary, and the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) met in Delhi Tuesday to finalise the panel for the appointment of the state Director General of Police (DGP), the first since 2022.
Uttar Pradesh has been making do with acting police chiefs since the May 2022 removal of Mukul Goel for ‘disregard of government duty’ and ‘indolence’. In 2024, the Yogi Adityanath government introduced new guidelines for appointing the DGP, but they were challenged in court. In February this year, the Supreme Court pulled up several states, including Uttar Pradesh, for delaying the appointment of permanent DGPs.
Following this, the state government informed the court that it had requested the UPSC to prepare a panel for the appointment process. Delhi’s Tuesday meet was in this connection.
According to sources in the government, the appointment is likely to take place under the old rules, although the state government has been pushing for the new guidelines to be implemented. Under the guidelines issued by the Yogi government in 2024, a six-member committee, headed by a retired high court judge, selects the DGP. Other members of the committee include the Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh, a member of the UPSC, chairman of the State Public Service Commission or a nominated representative, the Additional Chief Secretary or principal Secretary of the state, and a former DGP of the state.
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In the race
Sources in the Uttar Pradesh Police indicate three senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officers in the reckoning—acting DGP Rajeev Krishna; Piyush Anand, a senior IPS officer currently serving at the Centre; and Renuka Mishra, a former chairperson of the Uttar Pradesh Police Recruitment Board.
Sources suggest that acting DGP Rajeev Krishna appears to be the frontrunner.
From the 1991 IPS batch, Rajeev Krishna has been serving as the acting DGP of Uttar Pradesh since 1 June last year. He was appointed after superseding 11 IPS officers. At that time, sources said none of the officers eligible for the permanent DGP post were considered politically trustworthy by the chief minister.
At present, only three officers senior to Rajeev Krishna remain in service: Renuka Mishra, Alok Sharma and Piyush Anand. The others have retired, and Sharma does so next month.
On the other side, the state government has reportedly forwarded the names of all officers who have completed 30 years of service to the UPSC panel.
Renuka Mishra is a 1990-batch IPS officer. She had earlier also been considered for the position, but her case had not moved forward due to the presence of four senior IPS officers ahead of her in the seniority list. She was promoted to Director General in 2021. Academically, she holds a B.Com degree and an MA in Police Administration.
She also served as chairperson of the Uttar Pradesh Police Recruitment and Promotion Board. However after the police recruitment paper leak controversy, the state government had removed her from the post and handed over the responsibility to Rajeev Krishna.
Piyush Anand is a 1991-batch IPS officer is currently serving on central deputation as Director General of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). He has been holding the position since 1 April 2024, and his tenure was extended by another year this March.
During his deputation at the Centre, he also served as Additional Director General and Special Director General in the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). He holds a B. Tech degree in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and a post-graduate degree in Public Policy from Management Development Institute, Gurgaon.
During his tenure in the Uttar Pradesh Police, Piyush Anand served as Superintendent of Police (SP) and Senior SP in 11 districts. He has also worked with the Central Bureau of Investigation for seven years.
Currently Rajiv Krishna is the fifth acting DGP appointed in the past four years. The successive appointments of five acting DGPs (D.S. Chauhan, R.K. Vishwakarma, Vijay Kumar and Prashant Kumar) in such a short duration suggest differences between the state and Centre when it comes to naming the police chief, Opposition leaders told ThePrint.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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