Kumar and Mishra were the two top contenders for the job, but sources said Patnaik, who was always the dark horse, got priority as the outgoing chief Alok Kumar Verma batted for him
Senior IPS officer Amulya Patnaik was appointed Delhi Police Commissioner on Monday superseding five senior officers of the Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre.
The 1985 batch officer was chosen over —1982 batch officer J K Sharma and four other 1984-batch officers — Dharmendra Kumar, Deepak Mishra, Ajay Kumar Singh and Karnal Singh. Kumar and Mishra were the two top contenders for the job, but sources said Patnaik, who was always the dark horse, got priority as the outgoing chief Alok Kumar Verma batted for him.
Technically, JK Sharma and Ajay Kumar Singh was out of race as inquiries are pending against them and Karnal Singh, who holds the top post in the Enforcement Directorate, had announced he will not return to his parent cadre. This left Kumar and Mishra as front runners for the post of the commissioner.
This is the second recent case when the Centre has superseded officers for a high profile job. Earlier, the NDA government appointed Lt General Bipin Rawat the Army Chief, superseding two senior most Lt Generals, Praveen Bakshi and PM Hariz.
As MHA announced Patnaik's name for the post two 1984-batch officers —Dharmendra Kumar and Deepak Mishra were busy carrying their work at CISF and CRPF respectively. Both were front runners for the post and served the force in various capacities.
Mishra and Kumar are currently posted as additional director general in the CRPF and CISF respectively. Both went for Central deputation when IPS officer Alok Kumar Verma took charge of Commissioner of Delhi Police in March last year after BS Bassi retired from the services.
The decision has left many senior officers in a quandary as they expected one of the two to be appointed on the basis of seniority since all three are considered highly competent and have a good service record.
The Commissioner of Police's post has become important as there is an Aam Aadmi Party government in the national capital and the NDA government at the Centre would want an officer who can withstand Kejriwal's antics to browbeat the police.
Sources in the MHA said that Kumar was ignored as he ordered a lathi-charge at Yoga guru Ramdev's programme in 2012 during a protest in Delhi when the UPA government was in power.
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