Bengaluru: Special Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Rupak Kumar Dutta’s name topped the list of nominees for the post of the next Director General and Inspector General of Police (DG&IGP) in the selection committee meeting, which was held in the State Secretariat on Monday.
According to sources, the committee headed by Home Minister G. Parameshwar selected the names of three senior most IPS officers, who are in the zone of consideration for the police chief’s post.
Besides Mr Dutta, who belongs to the 1981 batch of IPS and is the senior most IPS officer in Karnataka, the committee reportedly selected the names of DGP, Internal Security Division (ISD), Neelmani Raju of 1983 batch of IPS, and DsGP, Criminal Investigation Department
(CID), H.C. Kishore Chandra, of 1984 batch, for the top post. The list has been submitted to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, an official source told this newspaper.
The other key contender to the DG&IGP post is DGP&Commandant, Home Guards, M.N. Reddi, who is also from the 1984 batch of IPS, but according to sources his name was not in the list because the selection committee can only recommend three names and this year they have given preference to seniority, the officer said.
“In all likelihood, the CM will go by seniority and appoint Mr Dutta to avoid controversy and prevent senior police officers from going to court. It is, however, the CM’s prerogative to appoint his police chief,” he said.
Before his present assignment, Mr Dutta was special director, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and was posted to the MHA on December 1, 2016.
Meanwhile, Ms Raju has written to the government seeking their nod for her Central deputation. She had returned to the state last year after a long tenure with the Intelligence Bureau. Her husband and former IAS officer D.N. Narsimha Raju was posted as the Chief Executive Officer, National Institute for Smart Government in New Delhi in October 2016.
He had retired in April last year and was subsequently appointed the Chief Information Commissioner of Government of Karnataka
The incumbent DG&IGP Om Prankish will demit office on January 31 on superannuation.
