IPS officer Rakesh Asthana appointed Delhi Police Commissioner

On 27^th July, 2021 IPS officer Rakesh Asthana has been appointed as the Commissioner of Delhi Police.

Highlights

• Rakesh Asthana was due to retire on as Director General of the Border Security Force (BSF) on 31^st
• The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has extended his service for a one year period beyond the date of Asthana’s superannuation.

About Rakesh Asthana

Rakesh Asthana is an Indian Police Service officer of the 1984-batch Gujarat Cadre was serving as the Director General of Border Security Force.

On 30^th June, 2021 after the retirement of SN Shrivastava, Balaji Srivastava was given the additional charge of Delhi Police by the government but there was no indication that this charge given to him was temporary.

Rakesh Asthana, has previously headed the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). He was exonerated in a 2018 bribery case which was registered against him by Alok Verma, the then Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chief. Mr. Asthana had held the post of the special director in CBI. In the year 2019 the government of India moved out Asthana and Verma after a falling out of the two top officers of the agency and it threatened the functioning of CBI. In May, he was the frontrunner to be appointed as the head of CBI but was dropped after NV Ramana, Chief Justice of India, pointed out a ruling of the Supreme Court that says that no officer should be named to a top police job with less than six months of tenure left.

Month: Current Affairs - July, 2021