Senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer B Sandhya is one of the three candidates in the run to be Kerala’s new State Police Chief (SPC) after incumbent Lokanath Behera retires from the post. If selected, she would be the first woman State Police Chief in the state. The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) list containing the names of three candidates for the post came on Thursday.
Of late, the norm for posting the SPC includes the following steps — the state first sends a list of eligible candidates to the UPSC, which then screens the list based on norms and sends back three, and the state government chooses one from the list.
Kerala government had first sent a list of 12 eligible candidates, which after the first screening by the UPSC was brought down to nine, and after further wetting, the UPSC returned the list with three names, which included — Sudheesh Kumar, head of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau; Sandhya, who is presently the head of the Fire Force; and Anil Kant, who is the Road Safety Commissioner.
The list does not have the name of Tomin J Thachenkery, considered to be a close aide of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The Chief Minister himself handles the Home portfolio and Thackenkery was widely tipped to be appointed to the post.
CM Pinarayi now has a few more days left to decide on who should take the top post as SPC Lokanath Behera is to superannuate on June 30. Incidentally, CM Pinarayi can still post Thachenkery as in-charge SPC of Law and Order and give the SPC post to one of the three candidates in the UPSC list, minus the key component of law and order.
In the past, there have been instances, when police officials bypassing seniority have been made the chief of law and order, while the SPC post was given to others.
It remains to be seen if Sandhya is made the SPC without the law and order portfolio. However, out of the three shortlisted names, Sudheesh Kumar is the senior-most and the most eligible as found by the UPSC. The decision on who gets the coveted post will be known in a day or two.
(With IANS inputs)