Election Commission appoints Ajay Kumar Singh as new DGP of Jharkhand

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.

On July 14, 2021, the court issued notices on the contempt plea against the state government, its top officials, and the UPSC for alleged violation of its verdict.

On September 3, 2021, the apex court pulled up the state government and the UPSC for their role in the appointment of an interim DGP in alleged violation of its judgement of a two-year fixed tenure for a state police chief who has to be selected from a list to be prepared by the UPSC.

Later in July, soon after Gupta’s appointment notification, a rift surfaced in the JMM-led ruling alliance over the DGP’s appointment.

Then state Congress president Rajesh Thakur had said the alliance partners were not taken in confidence while making “such a major decision”.

Earlier this month, the EC had asked the state government to submit a panel of names of senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officers by October 21 morning to enable it to pick an officer to be named the next DGP.

During the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Gupta was relieved of his duties as ADG (Special Branch), Jharkhand, following allegations of biased conduct made by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). He was reassigned to the resident commissioner’s office in Delhi and barred from returning to Jharkhand until the election process was completed, the sources said.

During the Rajya Sabha elections in Jharkhand in 2016, Gupta, then an additional DGP, faced serious charges of misuse of authority. The commission had formed an inquiry committee following which a chargesheet was issued to him for departmental inquiry.