Retired Cop Among Probables For New DGP Post

It's quite quizzical to find a retired cop's name in the list of probables for new DGP post! The murky politics of Andhra Pradesh police has been making news for a long time, ever since the governments of the day started superseding officers and appointing police chiefs on criteria other than merit. The legal challenge by superseded cops have also been ignored by the government what with the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) which hears such petitions being rather slow to come up with their orders.

However, this time the CAT not only quashed the posting of director general, but also asked the government to send a list of six senior cops to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). The new DGP will be selected from a panel of three to be selected by the UPSC from among these six names. So far so good, but the CAT has identified the six officers whose name has to be forwarded. This includes the name of a cop who retired a few months ago!

It is not clear whether the inclusion of a superannuated cop is part of some legalistic interpretation by the CAT or a case of plain oversight. Many cops say that had it not been a tribunal headed by a retired justice of a high court, they would have smelt a deliberate attempt to scuttle the chances of a strong contender. By the inclusion of the retired cop's name, strong contender Dinesh Reddy's name has got pushed out. If retired cop Alok Srivastava's name was not included, Dinesh Reddy (being the next senior-most cop) would have been in the consideration list for the top post. So has a fair chance been denied to Dinesh Reddy?