In a departure from over one-and-a-half-century-old history, Mumbai would now have Commissioner of Police (CP) and Special Commissioner of Police (Special CP).
The post of Special CP was created along the lines of Delhi Police.
The police outpost in Mumbai (then Bombay) came up in 1661 which was made by the Portuguese.
The Mumbai Police’s early origins are traced to Bhandari Militia, which was the first police establishment in Mumbai (then Bombay) during the time of the British East India Company. In Bombay, Gerald Aungier, the second Governor of Bombay, formed a militia of local Bhandari youth to deal with organized street-level gangs that robbed sailors in 1669.
The formal police force came into being in 1864 with Sir Frank Henry Andrew Souter becoming the first CP.
While 1989-batch IPS officer, who is of the rank of the Director General of Police is the Mumbai CP since 1 July 2022, 1994-batch IPS officer Deven Bharti, who is an officer of the rank of Additional Director General of Police, took over as the Special CP on Thursday.
As per the new arrangement, the five Joint Commissioners of Police (Joint CPs) would report to Special CP, who in turn would report to the CP. He had also served as Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) and played a lead role in the investigations of the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai.
The five Jt CPs are incharge of Administration, Law & Order, Crime, Traffic and Economic Offences Wing.
It needs to be mentioned that the post of Mumbai CP is the most coveted post in Maharashtra’s police hierarchy.
The move of the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government has invited the ire of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi.
Bharti is considered close to Fadnavis, the Deputy Chief Minister, who holds the Home department.
When Fadnavis was the Chief Minister from 2014-19, Bharti had held crucial appointments including Joint CP (Law and Order) in Mumbai and Chief of Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).
Different opinions have emerged with some retired police officers saying that the hierarchy of the Mumbai Police - one of the finest in the country - has been disturbed with this kind of an arrangement.
However, some of them point out that while the post of Mumbai CP has been upgraded to the rank of DGP and the next in command are the Joint CPs are of the rank of Special Inspector General of Police - and hence to bring in a chain of command, an Additional DGP rank officer has been brought in.