Controversial top cop Rashmi Shukla reinstated as Maharashtra DGP

With the landslide win for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led led Mahayuti and their expected return to power in Maharashtra, the state government has reinstated controversial police officer, Rashmi Shukla, as Maharashtra Director General of Police (DGP).
Shukla was asked to proceed on leave by the government on orders of the Election Commission of India (ECI), following a complaint by the opposition Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) in the run-up to assembly elections in the state. Both parties had claimed that the election process would not be free and fair under Shukla as DGP, alleging that she had ordered the tapping of phones of opposition leaders when she headed the sate intelligence department.
Significantly, while the ECI order had stated that Shukla should be removed from her post, the state home department merely ordered Shukla to proceed on leave, before appointing Sanjay Verma in her place, thus allegedly paving the way for her return.
Shukla also met deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis at his official residence on Sunday, allegedly to discuss her reinstatement, BJP sources confided. Late on Monday evening, the state home department’s joint secretary, V M Bhat, issued an order stating that Shukla’s compulsory leave had ended, and she could return to her post as DGP.
These developments have upset the Congress, with the party’s spokesperson Atul Londhe claiming that by meeting Fadnavis, Shukla had violated the Model Code of Conduct, which is still in force. Londhe said that in Telangana, the ECI had acted against a DGP and another senior police official for meeting a senior minister during elections. “Why does the Election Commission act swiftly in non-BJP-ruled states but fail to take note of such violations in BJP-ruled states,” he asked. A senior official with the office of the state chief electoral officer said the Congress had not filed any complaint with the ECI.
The last time a Maharashtra DGP was asked to step aside during elections was in 2009, when A N Roy was directed not to deal with election-related matters, which were assigned to S Chakravarthi. Roy had been accused of bias towards certain political parties.
Shukla’s career has been tainted by controversy before. When the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) came to power in 2019 she was shunted out along with many other top officers. She was moved from the State Intelligence Department to civil defence, a non-executive posting. She was posted as additional director general of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), followed by head of the Sashastra Seema Bal, a central force that secures India’s borders.
After Shukla was shunted out of Maharashtra, three FIRs were registered against her, in Pune and Mumbai, in 2022, based on allegations of phone tapping by opposition leaders from the Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP. They alleged that Shukla was acting on orders of her political bosses in the ruling BJP. Shukla moved court to get the cases quashed, and when the Mahayuti government came to power, all three cases were finally closed.