R&AW Spymaster Takes Over as Mumbai’s New Police Chief: 5 Things to Know

After Mumbai’s former Commissioner of Police, Datta Padsalgikar was promoted as the Director General of Police for the State of Maharashtra, there was an air of mystery about who the top brass will entrust the responsibility of maintaining the law & order of the maximum city.

This suspense came to an end as Senior IPS officer Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, beat several contenders and took charge as the new police commissioner of Mumbai on Saturday, June 30, 2018.

Don’t know who this top cop is? Here’s all about him:

• The 55-year-old top cop is a 1985-batch IPS officer. He holds a BA degree and is an MBA.
• He served the Centre as Additional Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat and was also a part of India’s external spy agency, Research and Analysis Wing, as a senior official.
• The state government had personally asked him if he would be interested in returning to Maharashtra. He has previously served in the Mumbai Police as Additional Police Commissioner in the past. And he was also a part of the elite Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad.
• He was also part of the team that investigated the 2006 Mumbai serial blasts. Jaiswal also served as the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of the Anti-Terrorism Squad, where he probed the 2006 Malegaon blast case.
• He was the chief of the Special Investigation Team which unearthed the multi-crore Telgi fake stamp paper scam. With over 350 agents who sold the fakes to bulk purchasers, including banks, insurance companies, and stock brokerage firms, the scam was estimated to be more than ₹200 billion (US$3.0 billion). This scam also exposed the nexus of many police officers and other government employees involved.

He is the second-most senior IPS officer after Padsalgikar in the state and is due for retirement in 2022.

Read More: Delhi IPS Officer Gives Half Her Salary to Family of Truck Driver Killed by Robbers

Speaking to The Times of India about the challenges of the top post, Jaiswal said, “The challenges of working in Mumbai will remain the same, the only change will be the circumstances. And my team will take challenges as they come.”

Here’s looking forward to that.
(Edited by Shruti Singhal)