V. Venu and Sheikh Darvesh Sahib, the Chief Secretary and State Police Chief designate respectively, bring a unique amalgam of experience, professionalism, and capabilities to their posts.
Mr. Venu, a 1990 batch IAS officer and a trained doctor, is more known for his creative intervention in the State’s tourism sector. He is widely credited with being the brain behind the Kerala Travel Mart scheme and for forging a bond between various stakeholders, including residents, in the vast tourism industry.
As Revenue Secretary, Mr. Venu spearheaded the effort to rehabilitate thousands displaced by the 2018 catastrophic floods.
As chief executive officer of the Kerala Rebuild Initiative, Mr. Venu successfully wooed the World Bank to help the effort. As Secretary of the Culture Department, Mr. Venu conceptualised and executed the International Theatre Festival of Kerala and the Kerala Museum project. His wife, Sarada Muralidharan, is a top bureaucrat in the Kerala cadre. Mr. Venu is a native of Thiruvananthapuram. They have two children.
Sheikh Darvesh Sahib brings decades of experience serving in law and order, anti-corruption, intelligence, and Crime Branch agencies to his office.
A native of Hyderabad, Mr. Sahib has a doctorate in Agronomy and MBA in Finance.
Mr. Sahib had served as the District Police Chief in Wayanad, Kasaragod, Kannur, and Palakkad. He was Commandant of the Malabar Special Police battalion. He was also commissioner of police in Kochi.
Mr. Sahib also served in Kosovo as part of a United Nations peacekeeping mission. He received the Indian Police Medal for Meritorious Service in 2007, the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service in 2016, the United Nations Peacekeeping Medal and Ati Utkrishta Seva Pathak.
Mr. Sahib is married to Sheik Farida Fatima. They have two children.
