Sivanandan replaces Gafoor as police chief

Mumbai police commissioner Hasan Gafoor was on Saturday promoted and transferred to the post of director general of Maharashtra state police housing and welfare corporation. D Sivanandan, commissioner of state intelligence, was appointed the new top cop of the city. He is expected to take charge on Monday.

Gafoor’s is an out-of-turn promotion, since he was due for one at the end of July, when DGs of police SS Virk and JD Virkar retire. Gafoor had received flak for his handling of the 26/11 terror attacks. There are indications that the report of the Ram Pradhan Committee, instituted to inquire into the attacks, has indicted Gafoor and raised doubts about his leadership skills. 

The state government is expected to table the Pradhan Committee report in the Assembly next week. A senior home department official said once the report is tabled, it is likely to create an uproar over its remarks on Gafoor. Some of the lapses pointed out by the committee relate to Gafoor’s failed role as the leader of a force. “During the three days of the attacks, the force was leaderless,” the officer said. Another aspect raised by the committee is the failure to implement guidelines of the standard operating procedure (SOP). “The crisis management group was not even put into action,” the officer said, adding that six months after the incident, the commissioner is still to conduct proper debriefing sessions. “Debriefing sessions are crucial after a crisis of such magnitude. It would have helped analyse what went wrong and what the force expected,” the officer added.

“It looks like home minister Jayant Patil pre-empted the impact of the report, and decided to transfer Gafoor on the weekend,” said a senior NCP leader, reacting to the move. Some cabinet ministers say there are sections in the report that are somewhat inflammatory, and likely to cause a furore in the House. “The home minister said there were certain references that said Gafoor asked joint commissioner Rakesh Maria to take charge of the control room, when a junior was to man it,” a cabinet minister said. “The fact that Gafoor trusted a senior officer who knows the city is important. Instead of looking into what went wrong and why, there is so much of nit-picking in this report.”
Some Congress leaders said it was a wrong move on part of the home minister. They added that of all the officials, Gafoor was on the ground, and monitoring every move ‘round the clock.

Home minister Jayant Patil told DNA, “Gafoor was up for a promotion and hence we took this decision. This has got nothing to do with the report. It is a natural process.”

Additional home secretary Chandra Iyengar denied that Gafoor’s transfer has anything to do with the Pradhan report. “Gafoor has been transferred, but he has been promoted to a senior rank of director general,” she said. Asked if this was sparked by the Ram Pradhan report, Iyengar said: “He will head the state for the Maharashtra state police housing and welfare corporation. This post was vacant and Gafoor was next in line.”

Leaders of both parties say they fear this move will alienate the Muslim community. “After so many years, the minority community was beginning to feel reassured, and now this move, just before the elections, will have severe repercussions,” a senior leader said. After the NCP debacle in the Lok Sabha polls, state leaders feel any wrong move on part of the chief minister, deputy minister or the home minister, will have a snowball effect on the party’s prospects in the forthcoming Assembly polls.

Who is D Sivanandan?
A 1976-batch IPS officer, D Sivanandan is among the most dynamic seniors of the Maharashtra Police. Before being appointed Mumbai commissioner, Sivanandan held several high profile posts, including commissioner, state intelligence; Thane commissioner and Nagpur commissioner.

Sivanandan came into limelight during his stint the chief of Mumbai’s crime branch in 2000. He has been credited with breaking the backbone of the Mumbai underworld when it was at it peak. As joint commissioner, Sivanandan spearheaded a team of encounter specialists like Pradeep Sharma, Vijay Salaskar and Praful Bhosale, who gunned down hundreds of underworld gangsters. During his stint as Thane commissioner, Sivanandan also did some welfare work for the Thane police force which till was neglected by the administration.