Nine Indian Police Service (IPS) officers of the 1984 and 1988 batches were among the probables for the post of Uttar Pradesh director general of police, a senior state home department official said on Wednesday.
Director general, Vigilance, Hitesh Chandra Awasthy, a 1985-batch IPS officer, was the front-runner, the official said.
The state police chief’s post is likely to fall vacant amid speculation that the incumbent OP Singh is not keen on a service extension. Singh, who has been DGP for over two years, is slated to retire on January 31.
The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is yet to take a final call on the state government’s recommendations for the new UP DGP.
The senior home department official said many senior IPS officers aspired to head India’s largest police force.
The home department official said the state government had already sent the names of DG-rank IPS officers, who had a minimum of six months of service period remaining, to the UPSC for consideration for the post of state police chief.
He said two more UP cadre IPS officers of the 1985 batch, AP Maheshwari and Arun Kumar, were on central deputation.
Maheshwari was appointed director general, Central Reserve Police Force, on January 14 while Kumar headed the Railway Protection Force as its DG since September 2018, he added.
The official explained there were 18 director general-rank UP cadre IPS officers of the 1985 and 1988 batches but five names were eliminated as they did not have a minimum of six months’ service left.
He said 1986-batch IPS officer JL Tripathi, who had seven months’ service remaining, was also among the panel of names sent to the UPSC.
The official said the other names on the panel were 1986-batch IPS officer Sujan Vir Singh (DG training), two 1987 batch officers (director general, Economic Offences Wing, RP Singh and director general, Rules and Manuals, Biswajit Mahapatra) and two 1988-batch IPS officers (DG, Police Recruitment and Promotion Board, Raj Kumar Vishwakarma and DG, Prison Anand Kumar).
He said 1988-batch IPS officer DS Chauhan’s name was under consideration for the post of DG intelligence as the incumbent Bhawesh Kumar Singh was also due to retire on Friday.
