Amid speculation of him throwing his hat in the ring of Assembly election on JDU ticket, Bihar DGP Gupteshwar Pandey took voluntary retirement on Tuesday. According to a notification issued by Bihar government, Gupteshwar Pandey’s request for VRS has been approved by the Governor Phagu Chauhan with effect from September 22. Sanjiv Kumar Singhal, DG Civil Defence and Fire Services has been given the additional charge of the DGP till further orders.
Gupteshwar Pandey, a 1987 batch IPS officer, had been at the helm of Bihar police since January 2019. Pandey is one of the few officers of the state who is quite popular among masses given his knack of staying in the limelight.
His aggressive stance against Mumbai Police in the Sushant Singh Rajput case drew him the national media attention. Many commended him for standing by the Patna Superintendent of Police Vinay Tiwari, who was quarantined in Mumbai as he had gone to lead a team which had been investigating an FIR related to Sushant’s death filed by the late actor’s father in Patna.
However, his comments on Mumbai police and Rhea Chakrborty have not gone down well in some quarters. In one of the comments he had stated that Rhea Chakrborty has no authority to comment on Bihar CM Nitish Kumar.
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut taking strong exception to his remarks had said that the Bihar DGP is behaving like a BJP worker. On the other hand, Maharashtra Housing Minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader Jitendra Awhad had predicted that the DGP will be made Home Minister of the state if Nitish Kumar returns as chief minister in the coming state election.
“Just in case Nitish Kumar returns as the Chief Minister, this DGP (Gupteshwar Pandey) of Bihar will certainly be the Home Minister,” the senior Nationalist Congress Party leader had tweeted.
As Gupteshwar Pandey has resigned, it remains to be seen if the DGP goes on the course as the Maharashtra housing minister predicted or he would chart out a different course.
