Gill removes police chief, shuffles team

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">AHMEDABAD: Going by his dismal performance during the riots, Ahmedabad police commissioner P C Pande should have been transferred two months ago. But it needed a K P S Gill to persuade Chief Minister Narendra Modi to do the needful.<br />Pande and a few other senior police officers of Ahmedabad were finally transferred late on Thursday night and a new set of officers brought in to handle the still-smouldering Ahmedabad.<br />Observers, however, feel that despite Gill’s reshuffle, Modi managed to have his way, owing to Gill’s unfamiliarity with the inner dynamics of the Gujarat force.<br />Most of the new incumbents are ones who helped Modi in the Rajkot-2 by-elections.Notable among them are additional DGP (CID-Crime) K R Kaushik, who replaces Pande; SP of Jamnagar Satish Verma, now additional commissioner, Sector II, which includes areas like Naroda Patia, Naroda Gam and Chamanpura and Satish Sharma, who will be in charge of a considerable area of the Walled City.<br />But Gill, too, made his own statement, bringing in A I Saiyed as his officer on special duty. Saiyed, who had been shunted in and out of the Karai police academy, now holds this job in addition to his earlier one.<br />Thursday night’s meeting to discuss the transfers was attended by the director-general of police K Chakravarthi, chief secretary G Subbarao, additional chief secretary (home) Ashok Narayan and Modi.<br />All the proposals for the Ahmedabad placements were tabled by Chakravarthi and ratified by Gill. The rest of the party kept quiet for most of the two-and-a-half-hour session.<br />Gill has looked into the prospective officers’ background — years in service, age, remarks in their Confidential Reports and their achievements.<br />Significantly, minister of state for home Gordhan Zadaphia, who had earlier been instrumental in positioning men at the ACP and DCP levels in Ahmedabad, was kept out of the meeting.<br />So as Modi — who is also holding the home portfolio — laughs all the way to CMO, Zadaphia is kept sulking.<br />Zadaphia’s trusted lieutenant, R J Savani, who was posted as DCP (crime branch) last month, was moved as SP (Ahmedabad rural).<br />Recently, the Crime Branch was directed to investigate 10 of the more serious cases of communal rioting involving VHP and BJP office-bearers.<br />Savani had a tough time dealing with those who were named in the FIRs in the Naroda-Patia cases. Now, he could be heaving a sigh of relief and consider himself fortunate to have been allowed to handle a district independently.<br />Similarly, additional police commissioner (sector I) Keshav Kumar, who moved to Ahmedabad a couple of weeks ago, was removed from the field and put in place of additional CP (administration) K D Patadia. Patadia has been left without a posting.<br />So is DCP (zone III) R D Makadia, who has only 22 days of service left before he retires and will be replaced by SP (Ahmedabad rural) Vikas Sahay.<br />Being in Raj Bhavan as ADC to the Governor helped D G Vanzara, who is now DCP (Crime) while joint commissioner (Prohibition) Rajan Priyadarshi got his executive break and will be DIG (Rajkot range). <br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Related Stories:</span><br /><img src="/images/ticker.gif"> <a href="/articleshow.cms?art_id=9467860">Firemen don''t trust Gujarat police</a><br /><img src="/images/ticker.gif"> <a href="/articleshow.cms?art_id=9477330">Relief camps will not be closed down: Advani</a><br /><img src="/images/ticker.gif"> <a href="/articleshow.cms?art_id=9461251">4 more dead, 43 injured in Ahmedabad violence</a></img></img></img></div> </div>