New Delhi/Ranchi: The Election Commission on Monday appointed Jharkhand cadre senior-most IPS officer Ajay Kumar Singh as the state DGP, sources said, days after the poll panel removed Anurag Gupta as the acting police chief.
An officer of the 1989 batch of the Indian Police Service, Singh was selected from a panel of three IPS officers whose names were sent by the state government.
The names were sent after the poll authority on Saturday ordered the removal of acting DGP Anurag Gupta due to his “history” of election-related misconduct in previous polls.
The state goes to polls in two phases on November 13 and 20.
Gupta, a 1990-batch IPS officer was given charge on July 26 replacing Singh who was then DGP.
Singh was made the state’s DGP in February 2023 after the retirement of his predecessor Neeraj Sinha.
Singh’s appointment last year ended the row over the appointment of the state’s DGP as the Supreme Court had in January 2023 disposed of a contempt petition against the Jharkhand government and former police chief Neeraj Sinha.
A petition had alleged that Sinha had been occupying the post of DGP even after his superannuation on January 31, 2022.
A bench, led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, had then directed the state to attend to the requisitions furnished by UPSC.